it to me by his last will. These little Elzevirs are the memoranda and trophies of many a walk by night and morning through the Cowgate, the Canongate, the Bow, Saint Mary's Wynd,-whereever, in fine, there were to be found brokers and trokers, those miscellaneous dealers in things rare and curious. How often have I stood haggling upon a halfpenny, lest, by a too ready acquiescence in the dealer's first price, he should be led to suspect the value I set upon the article! -how have I trembled, lest some passing stran. ger should chop in between me and the prize, and regarded each poor student of divinity that stopped to turn over the books at the stall, as a rival amateur, or prowling bookseller in disguise! -and then, Mr Lovel, the sly satisfaction with which one pays the consideration and pockets the article, affecting a cold indifference while the hand is trembling with pleasure!—Then to dazzle the eyes of our wealthier and emulous rivals by shewing them such a treasure as this(displaying a little black smoked book about the size of a primmer)—to enjoy their surprise and envy, shrouding meanwhile under a veil of mysterious consciousness our own superior knowledge and dexteritiy - these, my young friend, these are the white moments of life, that repay the toil, and pains, and sedulous attention, which our profession, above all others, so peculiarly demands!>> Lovel was not a little amused at hearing the old gentleman run on in this manner, and, how # ever incapable of entering into the full merits of what he beheld, he admired, as much as could have been expected, the various treasures which Oldbuck exhibited. Here were editions esteemed as being the first, and there stood those scarcely less regarded as being the last and best; here was a book valued because it had the author's final improvements, and there another which (strange to tell!) was in request because it wanted them. One was precious because it was a folio, another because it was a duodecimo; some because they were tall, some because they were short; the merit of this lay in the title-page, of that in the arrangement of the letters in the word Finis. There was, it seemed, no peculiar distinction, however trifling or minute, which might not give value to a volume, providing the indispensable quality of scarcity, or rare occurrence, was attached to it. Not the least fascinating was the original broadside-the Dying Speech, Bloody Murder, or Wonderful Wonder of Wonders, in its original tattered guise, as it was hawked through the streets, and sold for the cheap and easy price of one penny, though now worth the weight of that penny in gold. On these the Antiquary dilated with transport, and read, with a rapturous voice, the elaborate titles, which bore the same proportion to the contents that the painted signs without a showman's booth do to the animals within. Mr Oldbuck, for example, piqued himself especially in possessing an unique broad side, entitled and called 'Strange and wonderful News from Chipping-Norton, in the County of Oxon, of certain dreadful Apparitions which were seen in the Air on the 28th of July, 1610, at Half an Hour after Nine o'Clock at Noon, and continued till Eleven, in which Time was seen Appearances of several flaming Swords, strange Motions of the superior Orbs, with the unusual Sparkling of the Stars, with their dreadful Continuations: With the Account of the opening of the Heavens, and strange Appearances therein disclosing themselves, with several other prodigious Circumstances not heard of in any Age, to the great Amazement of the Beholders, as it was communicated in a Letter to one Mr Col ley, living in West Smithfield, and attested by Thomas Brown, Elizabeth Greenaway, and Anne Gutheridge, who were Spectators of the dreadful Apparitions-And if any one would be further satisfied of the Truth of this Relation, let them repair to Mr Nightingale's, at the Bear Inn, in West Smithfield, and they may be satisfied.' k << You laugh at this,» said the proprietor of the collection, «< and I forgive you. I do acknowledge that the charms on which we doat are not so obvious to the eyes of youth as those of a fair lady; but you will grow wiser, and see more justly, when you come to wear spectacles. Yet stay, I have one piece of antiquity which you, mayhap, will prize more highly.» So saying, Mr Oldbuck unlocked a drawer, and took out a bundle of keys, then pulled aside a piece of the tapestry which concealed the door of a small closet, into which he descended by four stone steps, and, after some tinkling among bottles and cans, produced two long-stalked wine-glasses with bell mouths, such as are seen in Teniers' pieces, and a small bottle of what he called rich racy canary, with a little bit of dietcake, on a small silver server of exquisite old workmanship. «I will say nothing of the server," he remarked, « though it is said to have been wrought by the old mad Florentine, Benevento Cellini. But, Mr Lovel, our ancestors drunk sack-you, who admire the drama, know where that's to be found.-Here's success to your exertions at Fairport, sir!» « And to you, sir, and an ample increase to your treasure, with no more trouble on your part than is just necessary to make the acquisitions valuable. » After a libation so suitable to the amusement in which they had been engaged, Lovel rose to take his leave, and Mr Oldbuck prepared to give him his company a part of the way, and show him something worthy of his curiosity on his return to Fairport. CHAPTER IV. The pawky auld carle cam ower the lea, Will ye lodge a silly poor man? The Gaberlunzie Man. OUR two friends moved through a little orchard, where the aged apple-trees, well loaded with fruit, showed, as is usual in the neighbourhood of monastic buildings, that the days of the monks had not always been spent in indolence, but often dedicated to horticulture and gardening. Mr Oldbuck failed not to make Lovel remark, that the planters of those days were possessed of the modern secret of preventing the roots of the fruit-trees from penetrating the till, and compelling them to spread in a lateral direction, by placing paving-stones beneath the trees when first planted, so as to interpose between their fibres and the sub-soil. « This old fellow," he said, << which was blown down last summer, and still, though half-reclined on the ground, is covered with fruit, has been, as you may see, accommodated with such a barrier, between his |