to receive the bridegroom, who, dis regarding all admonition, leaped gay by ashore, and was welcomed with trumpet flourish and the continued sound of the lowland pipe. He was followed by six of his seven mariners, I alone remained-over awed by the vision I had beheld on the preceding night by the prophetic words of the sorceress of Siddick-and by that boding forecast of disaster, which the wise would do well to regard. On all sides people were seated on the rising grounds: the tree tops, the immemorial resting places of ravens and rooks, were filled with young men, anxious to see the procession to the chapel of Preston, and hearken the bridal joy; and even the rough and dizzy cliff of Barnhourie Burn, which over-looks the Solway for many miles, had the possession of its summit disputed with its native cormorants and eagles, by some venturous school-boys, who thus showed that love of adventure which belongs to the children of the sea-coast. The sun was in noon when we landed in Preston-bay, and its edge was touching the grassy tops of the western hills of Galloway, when shout above shout, from wood and eminence,-the waving of white hands from field and knoll, and the sudden awakening of all manner of clamorous and mirthful melody, announced the coming of the bridal crowd. The gates of Preston-Hall burst suddenly open; out upon the level lawn gushed an inundation of youths and maidens clad in their richest dresses, and the living stream flowed down to the Solway side. As they approached, a shallop, covered from the mast-head to the water with streamers, and pennons, and garlands, came suddenly from a small anchorage scooped out of the bosom of the garden, making the coming tide gleam to a distance, with the gold and silver lavished in its decoration. But my admiration of this beautiful shallop was soon in terrupted by the appearance of a lady, who, standing on the ground by the prow of the bride's barge, looked earnestly seaward, and trem bled so much, that the white satin dress which covered her from bosom to heel-studded, and sown, and flowered with the most costly stones and metals-shook as if touched by an ungentle wind. Her long tresses of raven black hair and which, in the boast of maidenhood of my early days, descended till she could sit upon them-partook of her agi tation. Her eyes, alone, large and bright, and fringed with long lashes of a black still deeper than that of her hair, were calm and contemplative, and seemed with her mind meditating on some perilous thing. While she stood thus, a maiden came to her side, and casting a long white veila present from the bridegroom-over her head, shrowded her to the feet; but the elegance of her form, and the deep dark glance of her expressive eyes triumphed over the costly gift ;though the fringe was of diamonds, and the disastrous tale of the youth who perished swimming over the Solway to his love, was wrought, or rather damasked, in the middle. I could have gazed from that hour tilk this on this beautiful vision; but, while I looked, there came slowly from the wood a figure of a woman, bent with age or distress to the ground, and entirely covered in a black mantle: she approached the bride unperceived, and lay down at her feet-as a foot-stool on which she must tread before she could enter the shallop. This was unheeded of many, or of all; for the blessings showered by all ranks on the departing pair,-the bustle of the mariners preparing to sail with the tide, which now filled Preston-bay,-the sounding of bugle and pipe,-andthe unremitting rivalry in song and ballad, between the mariners in the barges of the bridegroom and bride, successively filled every mind-save mine, overclouded then, and as it has ever since been, before some coming calamity. Ballad and song passed over my memory without leaving a verse behind; one song. alone, sung by a mariner of Allanbay, and which has long been popular on the coast, interested me much, more, I confess, from the dark and mysterious manner in which it figured or shadowed forth our catastrophe, than from its poetical merit, the last verse alone approaching to the true tone of the lyric. MICHAEL HALMER'S SONG. 1. Upon the bonnie mountain side, upon the leafy trees, Upon the rich and golden fields, upon the deep green seas, The wind comes breathing freshly forth-ho! pluck up from the sand 2. My son, a grey-hair'd peasant said, leap on the grassy land, 3. And wherefore, old man, should I turn? dost hear the merry pipe, Full sore the old man sigh'd-and said, go bid the mountain wind 4. Lo! look! here comes our lovely bride-breathes there a wind so rude As chafe the billows when she goes in beauty o'er the flood; The raven fleece that dances on her round and swan-white neck; The white foot that wakes music on the smooth and shaven deck; The white hand that goes waving thus, as if it told the brineBe gentle in your ministry, o'er you I rule and reign; The eye that looks so lovely, yet so lofty in its swayOld man, the sea adores them-so adieu sweet Allanbay. During the continuance of this song, an old gentleman of the house of Maxwell, advancing through the press to the barges, said aloud-" A challenge, ye gallants, a challenge! -let the bridegroom take his merry mariners of England-let the bride take her mariners of old Gallowaypush the barges from Preston-bay, as the signal-pipe sounds; and a ton of blood-red wine to a cup-full of cold water, that we reach Allanbay first." As the old man finished his challenge, hundreds of hats, and bonnets too, were thrown into the air, and the bridegroom, with a smile, took his offered hand and said,"What! Sir Marmaduke Maxwell, wilt thou brave us too? -A ton of the richest wine to a drink of the saltest brine in the centre of Solway, that the merry lads of Allanbay exceed thee at least by ten strokes of VOL. III. 66 the oar." The English mariners replied, as is their wont-with a shout, threw aside their jackets and caps, and prepared gladly for the coming contest; nor were the mariners of Siddick and Colvend slow in preparing: they made themselves ready with that silent and sedate alacrity peculiar to that singular people. "May I never see Skiddaw again," said Walter Selby of Derwent, nor taste Nancy Grogson's grog, or her pretty daughter's lips, if the freshwater lads of Barnhourie surpass the saltwater lads of Allanbay."" And for my part," said Charles Carson, "in answer to my comrade's vow, may I be turned. into a sheldrake, and doomed to swim to doomsday in the lang black lake of Loughmaben, if the powk puds of Skiddaw surpass the cannie lads of green Galloway." And both Y parties, matched in numbers, in strength of equal years, and of similar ability, stood with looks askance on each other, ready to start and willing to win the bridal boast, and the bride or bridegroom's favour. "And now my sweet bride," said Lord William, "shall I help thee into thy barge?-Loth am I that thy kinsman's vaunt causes a brief separation:-now guide thy barge wisely and warily," said he to her helmsman, "I would liefer pay the wine for thy mistress ten thousand fold than one lock of her raven hair should be put in jeopardy. If thou bringest her harmless into Allanbay I shall give an hundred pieces of gold to thee and thy mates.-Shouldest thou peril her in thy folly, come before my face no more. "Peril Beatrice Maxwell, Lord William," said the Scotish helmsman, with a look of proud scorn, "My fathers have fought to the saddle laps in English blood for 1. the men of the house of Maxwell— and I would rather see all who own the sirname o' Forster sinking in the Solway without one to help them, than be the cause of the fair maiden of Preston soiling slipper or snood.I see ye dinna ken ought of the Howatsons of Glenhowan." "I know nought of the Howatsons of Glenhowan," said the bridegroom, "but what I am proud and pleased withtherefore ply the oar and manage the sail, for I have men with me who will put you to your might in both." To this conciliating speech the maritime representative of the ancient Howatsons of Glenhowan returned no answer, but busying himself in his vocation, chaunted, as was his wont on going upon any important mission, some fragments of an old ballad-made by one of the minstrels of the house of Maxwell, when its glory was at the fullest. "Give the sail to the south-wind, thou mariner bold, And sever the green grassy sward with her prow, "An ominous star sits above the bright moon, And the vessel goes faster and faster; And see the changed planet so lovely even now 2. "The moon, thou coward churl-lo! see the swift shafts And hearken the war steed-he neighs in his strength, And tramples the dead and the dying." And the bark smote the ground and ashore they all leapt 3. All on yon fair shore where the cowslips bloom thick, Ere the song had ceased the bride proceeded to enter the barge, when she perceived at her feet a figure in a black mantle, and scarce refrained from shrieking. 66 Margery, what wouldest thou with me, Margery," she said, visibly affected--" the cottage thou livest in I have given thee.“ Worlds, wealth, and creature comforts are no cares of mine," said the old domestic of the house of Maxwell. "I laid me down here, that ere Beatrice Maxwell departs with one of a doomed house she should step over my gray hairs.-Have I not said-have I not prayed?" "Margery, Margery," said the bride, be silent and be wise."-" Are we to stand here and listen to the idle words of a crazed menial," said one of the house of Maxwell" aboard, ye gallants, aboard," and placing the bride on deck, the barges, urged by oar and sail, darted out of the bay of Preston, while the shout and song of clamouring multitudes followed us far into the ocean. The wind of the summer twilight, gentle and dewy, went curling the surface of the water; before us the green mountains of Cumberland rose; behind us we beheld the huge outline of the Scotish hills, while, a full stone-cast asunder the barges pursued their way, and the crews silent and anxious had each their hopes of conquering in the contest. As we went scudding away I looked toward the hall of Helvellyn, and there I beheld on its summit the old lord, with his gray hair-his hands clasped, and his eyes turned intent on the barge which contained his son. I thought on the prophecy, and on the vision of the preceding evening, and looked towards the hills of Scotland, now fast diminishing in the distance. At first I thought I saw the waters agitated in the track we had pursued, and continuing to gaze, I observed the sea furrowed into a tremenduous hollow following the sinuous course of the barge. I now knew this to be a whirlwind, and dreading that it would fasten on our sails, I tacked northward-the whirl wind followed also.-I tacked southward, and to the south veered the whirlwind, encreasing in violence as it came.-The last sight I beheld was the sea at our stern, whirling round in fearful undulations. The wind at once seizing our sails, turned us thrice about, and down went the barge, headforemost in the centre of Solway. I was stunned-and felt the cold brine bubbling in my ears as emerging from the flood I tried to swim-barge, bridegroom, and mariners were all gone. The bride's barge came in a moment to my side, and saved me, and standing for the coast of Cumberland, spread the tale of sorrow along the shore, where crowds had assembled to welcome us. The old Lord of Helvellyn remained on the castle top, after he had witnessed the loss of his son; and when his favourite servant ventured to approach, he was found seated in his chair, his hands clasped more in resignation than agony, his face turned to the Solway, and his eyes gazing with the deepest intensityand stiff and dead. The morning tide threw the body of Lord William and those of his six mariners ashore : and when I walked down at day dawn to the beach, I found them stretched in a row on the very spot where the vision had revealed their fate to me so darkly and so surely. Such a tale as this will be often told you among the sea-coast cottages of Cumberland-Young man, be wise, and weigh well the mysterious ways of Providence. Lammerlea, Cumberland. A CHAPTER ON EARS. I HAVE NO ear.Mistake me not, reader,-nor imagine that I am by nature destitute of those exterior twin appendages, hanging ornaments, and (architecturally speaking) handsome volutes to the human capital. Better my mother had never borne me.-I am, I think, rather delicately than copiously provided with those conduits; and I feel no disposition to envy the mule for his plenty, or the mole for her exactness, in those ingenious labyrinthine inlets-those indispensable side-intelligencers. Neither have I incurred, or done any thing to incur, with Defoe, that hideous disfigurement, which constrained him to draw upon assurance to feel quite unabashed,* and at ease upon that article. I was never, I thank my stars, in the pillory; nor, Earless on high stood, unabash'd, Defoe.-Dunciad. if I read them aright, is it within the compass of my destiny, that I ever should be. When therefore I say that I have no ear, you will understand me to meanfor music.-To say that this heart never melted at the concourse of sweet sounds, would be a foul self-libel."Water parted from the sea," never fails to move it strangely. So does "In infancy." But they were used to be sung at her harpsichord (the old-fashioned instrument in vogue in those days) by a gentlewoman-the gentlest, sure, that ever merited the appellation the the sweetest - why should I hesitate to name Mrs. Sonce the blooming Fanny Weatheral of the Temple-who had power to thrill the soul of Elia, small imp as he was, even in his long coats; and to make him glow, tremble, and blush with a passion, that not faintly indicated the day-spring of that absorbing sentiment, which was afterwards destined to overwhelm and subdue his nature quite, for Alice W n. Scientifically I could never be made to understand (yet have I taken some pains) what a note in music is; or how one note should differ from another. Much less in voices can I distinguish a soprano from a tenor. Only sometimes the thorough bass I contrive to guess at, from its being supereminently harsh and disagreeable. I tremble, however, for my misapplication of the simplest terms of that which I disclaim. While I profess my ignorance, I scarce knew what to say I am ignorant of. I hate, perhaps, by misnomers. Sostenuto and adagio stand in the like relation of obscurity to me; and Sol, Fa, Mi, Re, is as conjuring as Baralipton. It is hard to stand alone-in an age like this,-(constituted to the quick and critical perception of all harmonious combinations, I verily believe, beyond all preceding ages, since Jubal stumbled upon the gamut)—to remain, as it were, singly unimpressible to the magic influences of an art, which is said to have I even think that sentimentally such an especial stroke at soothing, I am disposed to harmony. But or- elevating, and refining the passions. ganically I am incapable of a tune. I-Yet rather than break the candid have been practising "God save the King" all my life; whistling and humming of it over to myself in solitary corners; and am not yet arrived, they tell me, within many quavers of it. Yet hath the loyalty of Elia never been impeached. current of my confessions, I must avow to you, that I have received a great deal more pain than pleasure from this so cried-up faculty. It sat I am constitutionally susceptible of noises. A carpenter's hammer, in a warm summer noon, will fret me I am not without suspicion, that into more than midsummer madness. I have an undeveloped faculty of But those unconnected, unset sounds music within me. For, thrumming, are nothing to the measured malice in my wild way, on my friend A's of music. The ear is passive to those piano, the other morning, while he single strokes; willingly enduring was engaged in an adjoining parlour, stripes, while it hath no task to con. -on his return he was pleased to say, To music it cannot be passive. "he thought it could not be the maid!” will strive-mine at least will-'spite On his first surprize at hearing the of its inaptitude, to thrid the maze; keys touched in somewhat an airy like an unskilled eye painfully poring and masterful way, not dreaming upon hieroglyphics. I have of me, his suspicions had lighted on through an Italian Opera, till, for Jenny. But a grace, snatched from sheer pain, and inexplicable anguish, a superior refinement, soon convinced I have rushed out into the noisiest him that some being, -technically places of the crowded streets, to soperhaps deficient, but higher inform-lace myself with sounds, which I was ed from a principle common to all the fine arts, had swayed the keys to a mood which Jenny, with all her (less-cultivated) enthusiasm, could never have elicited from them. I mention this as a proof of my friend's penetration, and not with any view of disparaging Jenny. not obliged to follow, and get rid of the distracting torment of endless, fruitless, barren attention! I take refuge in the unpretending assemblage of honest common-life sounds ;-and the purgatory of the Enraged Musician becomes my paradise. I have sat at an Oratorio (that |