Guy Mannering.

GUY MIANNERING. 103
round the parish upon a hand-barrow, circulating fromn
house to house like a bad shilling, which every one is in
haste to pass to his neighbour,-she who used to call for
her bearers as loud, or louder, than a traveller demands
post-horses,-even she shared the same disastrous fate.
The " daft Jock," who, half knave, half idiot, had been
the sport of each succeeding race of village children for a
good part of a century, was remitted to the county bridewell, where, secluded from free air and sunshine, the only
advantages he was capable of enjoying, he pined and died
in the course of six months. The old sailor, who had so
long rejoiced the smoky rafters of every kitchen in the
country by singing captain JIctrd, and Bold Admiral
Benbow, was banished from the county for no better
reason than that he was supposed to speak with a strong
Irish accent. Even the annual rounds of the pedlar were
abolished by the Justice in his hasty zeal for the administration of rural police.
These things did not pass without notice and censure.'We are not made of wood or stone, and the things which
connect themselves with our hearts and habits cannot, like
bark or lichen, be rent away without our missing them.
The farmer's dame lacked her usual share of intelligence,
-perhaps also the self-applause, which she had felt while
distributing the awmous (alms) in shape of a gowpen
(handful) of oatmeal, to the mendicant who brought the
news. The cottage felt inconvenience from interruption
of the petty trade carried on by the itinerant dealers.
The children lacked their supply of sugar-plums and
toys; the young women wanted pins, ribbons, combs, and
ballads; and the old could no longer barter their eggs fox
salt, snuff, and tobacco. All these circumstances brought
the busy Laird of Ellangowan into discredit, which was