The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

CHRONICLES OF THE CANONGATE. 373
the ordinary Scotch patois, as the accent of St. James's is from that of
Billingsgate. The vowels were not pronounced much broader than in the
Italian language, and there was none of the disagreeable drawl which is so
offensive to southern ears. In short, it seemed to be the Scottish as spoken
by the ancient court of Scotland, to which no idea of vulgarity could be
attached; and the lively manner and gestures with which it was accompanied, were so completely in accord with the sound of the voice and the style
of talking, that I cannot assign them a different origin. In long derivation,
perhaps, the manners of the Scottish court might have been originally
formed on that of France, to which it had certainly some affinity; but I
will live and die in the belief, that those of Mrs. Baliol, as pleasing as they
were peculiar, came to her by direct descent from the high dames who
anciently adorned with their presence the royal halls of Holyrood.
aptrn trt rnrunt4.
MRS. BALIOL ASSISTS CROFTANGRY IN HIS LITERARY SPECULATIONS.
SUCH as I have described Mrs. Bethune Baliol, the reader will easily believe that when I thought of the miscellaneous nature of my work, I rested
upon the information she possessed, and her communicative disposition, as
one of the principal supports of my enterprise. Indeed, she by no means
disapproved of my proposed publication, though expressing herself very
doubtful how far she could personally assist it —a doubt which might be
perhaps set down to a little lady-like coquetry, which required to be sued
for the boon she was not unwilling to grant. Or, perhaps, the good old
lady, conscious that her unusual term of years must sooh draw to a close,
preferred bequeathing the materials in the shape of a legacy, to subjecting
them to the judgment of a critical public during her lifetime.
Many a time I used, in our conversations of the Canongate, to resume my
request of assistance, from a sense that my friend was the most valuable
depository of Scottish traditions that was probably now to be found. This
was a subject on which my mind was so much made up, that when I heard
her carry her description of manners so far back beyond her own time, and
describe how Fletcher of SaltQn spoke, how Graham of Claverhouse danced,
what were the jewels worn by the famous Duchess of Lauderdale, and how
she came by them, I could not help telling her I thought her some fairy,
who cheated us by retaining the appearance of a mortal of our own day,
when, in fact, she had witnessed the revolutions of centuries. She was
much diverted when I required her to take some solemn oath that she had
not danced at the balls given by Mary of Este, when her unhappy husband*
occupied Holyrood in a species of honourable banishment; -or asked,
whether she could not recollect Charles the Second, when he came to Scotland in 1650, and did not possess some slight recollections of the bold
usurper who drove him beyond the Forth.
"Beau cousin," she said, laughing, "none of these do I remember personally; but you must know there has been wonderfully little change on
my natural temper from youth to age. From which it follows, cousin, that
being even now something too young in spirit for the years which Time has
marked me in his calender, I was, when a girl, a little too old for those of
* The Duke of York, afterwards James IT. frequently resided in Holyrood-house, when his religion rendered
him an object of suspicion to the English Parliament.
2G