The first is a letter from Charles Mackechnie, a lad of sixteen, who is in the third year of his education, and can speak tolerably well. It describes a visit to the college court-yard, where a live Polar bear is at present kept, and to the Museum of Natural History.
Dear Sir, Edinburgh, March 1814.
Percival Clennel's father, and his brother, and gentle man, came to your house to the parlour, and he spoke to you. When (ulzonzuhich) you told us, Come to me, you will change your coat;' and I went to the closet and changed my coat, and 1 went down stairs. And we went to the college ; and his father met his mother in North Bridge, and we went to the college. And a gentleman went to the house, and took a key out, and came to us. And we went to the door, and he opened the door, and I wondered at a bear. And I saw a fence at the bear, and a lad took a pole, and he held it to the bear, and it roared. And he gave his father a pole, and he took and held it through the fence to take out flesh and bone, and it caught it, and it roared. And Percival Clennel and his brother were afraid of bear in the den, when we went from it to the door, and shut the door. And we went to a house, and man opened the door, and we went to the beasts and birds in the room. And I saw an elephant's head by the bone, and young lion, and a little ostrich with a big egg, and cassowary, and serpents, and black monkey, and a deer had a long horn, and unicorn has a very long horn, and ducks, and shells, and marbles, and pebbles, and wild shark, and humming birds, and many clothes and shoes for Indian in cup-board hanging on the partition ; and his father spelled to us the names of beast and birds.
The next is by Joseph Turner, a lad of fifteen, who Is also in the third year of his education, and speaks pretty well. It is entitled, a Visit to the Court of Ses sion.
Edinburgh, llth Feb. 18 14.
a I, John Wilkie, and Charles Mackechnie, went to the Court of Session, and we saw a number of gentle men and advocates walking in the Court of Session. And a judge was sitting on a soft chair near the wall. He had a red gown on him, and a powdered wig on his head, and a large white band for a neckcloth on his breast. The advocates were sitting on the form before the judge, and they had black gowns on their bodies, and powdered wigs on their heads. One of the advocates got up from
the form, and spoke out to the judge, and he hearkened to him speaking. When he sat down, the judge wrote in a book on the desk. Two advocates got up from the form, and one did not speak out ; but the other advocate spoke out to the judge, and be listened to him speaking out. I saw a gentleman put many pieces of paper on the desk, and the judge wrote them ; when the gentle man took them from the desk, and put them on another desk. When the judge had done writing them, he lean ed his back on the hack of the chair at the wall, and lis tened to the advocates speaking. Do you know what the advocates were speaking to the judge? Many large pictures hang on the wall of the Court of Session. An image of a judge* sat up on the chair at the wall." The next is an extract of a letter from the same. It describes, with no small degree of poetic feeling, one of the most pleasing cares of a pastoral life.
" Sir, Edinburgh, 10th March 1814.
was a keeper of bees. My mother told me that I was a good boy to watch the bees flying round the bee hives in the garden, in the summer or autumn of year 1808 and 1809. It was pleasant ; for bees flew round the hives. She told me, that " you must watch the bees flying round them, if they fly away in the air from the bee-hives.' When (upon quhich) I ran to my mo ther's house, and told her that the bees flew away in the air; and then we went to her garden, to see the bees flying in,the air. I threw at the bees flying with clay, and my mother beat the iron pan with one iron stick;t for the bees sat on the trees in my father's field, and they did not fly. She told me to go and bring another bee-hive, and a table. I went away to the house, and I took them to the field, and I gave them to her. And she put the bee-hive on the tree or the bush near the bees ; and I•saw she covered her face with a white veil, and she shaked them into the bee-hive from the bush with her right hand. In the evening, I and my father went to his field, and took the bee-hive to his garden, and put it on the broad stone; and we went into his house and rested ourselves.