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 Colley, 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.' " 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 acquisi tions 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 roots and the unkindly till. That other tree has a story; the fruit is called the Abbot's Apple; the lady of a neighbouring baron was so fond of it, that she would often pay a visit to Monkbarns, to have the pleasure of gathering it from the tree. The husband, a jealous man belike, suspected that a taste so nearly resembling that of Mother Eve prognosticated a similar fall. As the bonour of a noble family is concerned, I will say no more on the subject, only that the lands of Lochard and Cringlecut still pay a fine of six bolls of bar ley annually, to atone the guilt of their audacious owner, who intruded himself and his worldly suspicions upon the seclusion of the Abbot and his penitent. Admire the little belfry rising above the ivy-mantled porch-there was here a hospitium, hospitale, or hospitamentum, (for it is written all these various ways in the old writings and evidents,) in which the monks received pilgrims-I know our minister has said, in the Statistical Account, that the hospitium was situated either on the lands of Haltweary, or upon those of Half-starvet; but he is incorrect, Mr Lovel― that is the gate called still the Palmer's Port, and my gardener found many hewn stones, when he was trenching the ground for winter cellery, several of which I have sent as specimens to my learned friends, and to the various antiquarian societies, of which I am an unworthy member. But I will say no more at present; Γ reserve something for another visit, and we have an object of real curiosity before us."> While he was thus speaking, he led the way briskly through one or two rich pasture meadows to an open heath or common, and so to the top of a gentle eminence. « Here," he said, « Mr Lovel, is a truly remarkable spot. >> << It commands a fine view," said his companion, looking around him. <<< True: but it is not for the prospect I brought you hither; do you see nothing else remarkable? -nothing on the surface of the ground?» Why, yes; I do see something like a ditch. indistinctly marked. » << Indistinctly!-pardon me, sir, but the indistinctness must be in your powers of vision -nothing can be more plainly traced-a proper agger or vallum, with its corresponding ditch or fossa. Indistinctly! why, heaven help you, the lassie, my niece, as light-headed a goose as womankind affords, saw the traces of the ditch at once. Indistinct! why, the great station at Ardoch, or that at Burnswark in Annandale, may be clearer doubtless, because they are stative forts, whereas this was only an occasional encampment. Indistinct! why, you must suppose that fools, boors, and idiots have ploughed up the land, and, like beasts and ignorant savages, have thereby obliterated two sides of the square, and greatly injured the third; but ye see, yourself, the fourth side is quite entire!» Lovel endeavoured to apologize, and to explain away his ill-timed phrase, and pleaded his inexperience. But he was not at once quite suc |