Oriental Egyptian race; at least they are much intermingled with our own national outlaws and vagabonds. They are said to keep up a communication with each other through Scotland, and to have some internal government and regulation as to the districts which each family travels.

"I cannot help again referring to Mr. Smith, of Kelso, a gentleman who can give the most accurate information respecting the habits of these itinerants, as their winter quarters of Yetholm are upon the estate of which he has long had the management."

To the above must be added a very curious communication from the Mr. Smith mentioned by Sir Walter Scott, which may be thought to account for the great liveliness and accuracy with which the character and manners of the Gypsies are pourtrayed in Quentin Durward.

"When first I knew any thing about the colony, old Will Faa was king, or leader; and had held the sovereignty for many years.

Meeting at Kelso with Mr. Walter Scott, whose discriminating habits, and just obser

vations, I had occasion to know from his youth; and at the same time seeing one of my Yetholm friends in the horse-market, I merely said to Mr. Scott, Try to get before that man with the long drab coat; look at him on your return; and tell me whether you ever saw him, and what you think of him.' He was so good as to indulge me; and rejoining me said, without hesitation, I never saw the man that I know of; but he is one of the Gypsies of Yetholm, that you told me of several years ago.' I need scarcely say that he was perfectly correct.

"The descendants of Faa now take the name of Fall, from the Messrs. Falls of Dunbar, who they pride themselves in saying are of the same stock and lineage. When old Will Faa was upwards of eighty years of age, he called on me at Kelso, in his way to Edinburgh, telling me that he was going to see the Laird, the late Mr. Nesbit, of Dirleton, as he understood that he was very unwell; and himself being now old, and not so stout as he had been, he wished to see him once more before he died,

"The old man set out by the nearest road, which was by no means his common practice. Next market-day some of the farmers informed me that they had been in Edinburgh, and seen Will Faa upon the bridge; (the south bridge was not then built ;) that he was tossing about his old brown hat, and huzzaing with great vociferation, that he had seen the Laird before he died. Indeed, Will himself had no time to lose; for having set his face homewards, by the way of the sea coast, to vary his rout, as is the general custom of the gang, he only got the length of Coldingham, when he was taken ill and died.

"His death being notified to his friends at Yetholm, they and their acquaintance at Berwick, Spittal, Horncliff, &c. met to pay the last honours to their leader. His obsequies were continued three successive days and nights, and afterwards repeated at Yetholm, whither he was brought for interment. I cannot say that the funeral rites were celebrated with decency and sobriety, for that was by no means the case. This happened in the year

1783 or 1784; and the late Mr. Nesbit did not long survive."*

The excellent civil policy, the active vigilance in enforcing its ordinances, and, above all, the industrious spirit, and moral habits of the Scotch, have cleared their country of these unprincipled vagabonds; who are now only to be seen, occasionally, and in small numbers, in some of the bordering counties. Here, now and then, indeed, the artist has still an opportunity of animating his sketch, and the tourist of diversifying his incidents, by the introduction of such a party as the moral Poet so well describes:

"I see a column of slow-rising smoke
O'ertop the lofty wood that skirts the wild.
A vagabond and useless tribe there eat
Their miserable meal. A kettle, slung
Between two poles upon a stick transverse,
Receives the morsel-flesh obscene of dog,
Or vermin, or at best of cock purloin'd
From his accustom'd perch. Hard faring race!
They pick their fuel out of every hedge,

Which, kindled with dry leaves and wood, just saves

The spark of life. The sportive wind blows wide
Their fluttering rags, and shews a tawny skin,
The vellum of the pedigree they claim."

*Hoyland ut supra, p. 109.

Cowper

ROYAL OATHS.

One mode which our Author has adopted of identifying the French king, of Quentin Durward, with the Louis the XIth of history, is that of attributing to his well-drawn character the frequent repetition of an oath, (or rather superstitious exclamation,) which, it appears, the monarch was in the habit of using in his common conversation. The introduction of such a characteristic circumstance is not injudicious; because, if dealt out discreetly, it throws another mark upon the copy, of resemblance to its original. But our Author has, unfortunately, not exercised discretion in this respect. With the violent, but short-lived attachment of a child to a new play-thing, he crowds upon us, in the earlier part of his story, the cant expression in every speech of Louis, till he has nauseated us with its iteration; and then, suddenly dropping this link of likeness between the real and fictitious, we have almost all the remaining colloquy of the king, as free from