degenerate age, has ever experienced the mysterious and undefinable emotions that agitated the bosom of him, who, of yore, committed himself to the body or basket of a long coach-unable to foresee the time and place at which dinner should be served; all the future, so far as regarded a comfortable cup of tea,-a barren waste; unconscious of the season when "tired nature's kind restorer, balmy sleep," should revisit him on a shake-down on three chairs, in a village inn; and looking forward to the overturning of the vehicle every hundred yards, or its final arrestment in a deep rut, where he and his companions, ignorant of the path, and unable to extricate the old lumber-box, would be found, after many days, fleshless skeletons, with not a vestige of their former frames, but the night-caps in which they died! When people had one common prospect of peril and suffering before their eyes, it could not fail to excite the social sympathies and sentiments of all. Every lady would look forward to the time, when the first overturn should afford a convenient opportunity of falling, faint, languid, and speechless, into the arms of an admiring swain, with a Welsh wig, who was her vis-à-vis. The gentlemen would gaze with chivalrous idolatry upon the fair forms, which, the next moment, they might be called upon to rescue from a muddy grave, and restore to animation by the skilful application of a scent bottle; and all ranks and sexes would be knit together in that friendly and paternal affection, which long and continued intercourse could not fail to beget.

and self-persecution. It is impossible to witness such persevering attempts to extract enjoyment by a precise formula and determinate process, without thinking of the patient labours of a worthy and phlegmatic German, who spent half a century in performing somersets over tables and chairs; and who, on being asked the reason for such singular and severe exertions, replied, with conscious pride glistening in his eye, "Je me fais vif, monsieur." This indefatigable man rose early, eat seldom, and sat up late, in order to pursue his favourite task, and, as may easily be supposed, fell a martyr to his vivacious determinations. In like manner, I have no doubt, do a full moiety of our population become victims to their erratic propensities. During the summer months, we can scarcely take up a newspaper that does not narrate the premature exit of a young gentleman with drab gaiters, who sought relief to his cares by stepping from a stage coach into his own garters. The bills of mortality are greatly increased, likewise, by the crowds of interesting females, who, in their fruitless search after the pleasant and picturesque, precipitate themselves into the nearest lake, for the mere purpose of dissipating ennui. And so far (many will think) there is nothing else than the wise provision of nature, to rid society of blue-stockings, sentimentalists, and sonneteers, in the present redundant state of these pestiferous tribes. But, unfortunately, the evil does not rest with them; and it is impossible to say how far it may proceed, if steam coaches are once tolerated, and the unlimited use of pen and ink" not speedily interdicted. As matters stand, no bagman posts without printing; nor, for many years, has a milliner with a green veil been seen three miles out of town, without making her debut in hotpressed tomes six months thereafter. In short, whenever a travelling bag or band-box is seen, there, be assured, are materials for another volume, calculated to spread the baneful itch for being happy by force, through all ranks and conditions of men. It is thus that respectable tailors are annually seduced from their shopboards and thimbles-that promising haberdashers are led into the pernicious snares of sensibility and cigarsmoking-that young gentlemen of genius in the grocery line have been entrapped into fur caps and broken English-and the great bulk of our people been driven into the unseemly practice of once-a-year leaving a home, which nature, in its mercy, never intended they should quit.

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Such were once the perils, the excitements, and the pleasures, of travelling in a long coach. Alas! that it should ever have been superseded;-for to its decay must be attributed the decline of that ardent friendship for their own, and that devoted admiration of the other sex, which constituted the glory and character of the men of other ages. Nay, I have not a doubt, that were the records of the mail-coach office at Madrid rigidly inspected, it would turn out, 'twas not "Cervantes smiled Spain's chivalry away," but merely the extinction of the race of heavy coaches that annihilated the gallantry and courage of his countrymen. This is melancholy enough; but in our own vaunted land, matters are still worse. Can there be a more deplorable object in this world, than a father of a family setting out on a journey, calculating to the twentieth of a second when he will arrive at the Bolton Tun, or the Swan with the Two Necks; and letting his wife know, in course of post, the precise instant at which to have the eggs boiling for breakfast Manifold as these evils are, still it would be unjust on his return? The excitement and delight of an oyster to ascribe them wholly to the mere exercise, or despicable are infinitely greater than those of the individual who modes of travelling now in use. Every pursuit, in order is hurled along a road smooth as a billiard-table, and to be successful, requires, as is well known, an especial monotonous as a doctrinal discourse, and who can nei- taste and original faculty for itself. Not to mention the ther be enlivened by accident, nor retarded by circum- instances of poets, painters, fiddlers, &c. there is my stances, every thing being previously arranged and pre-worthy friend, Mortuus, who is so completely au fait in destined by the fiat of a mail contractor. What interest can such a being have in travelling, or what pleasure can he enjoy in reaching the end of a hundred miles, journey, before he has had time to button his great-coat, much less to ascertain whether his fellow-passengers are human beings or not? Even if he is blessed with an intuitive perception of the sex and beauty of the sweet little item of flesh and blood that sits opposite, what avails it? There are no robbers on the way-no ruts in Macadamized roads-no possibility of murder when moving at the rate of eleven and a half miles per hour nothing on which a rational man could found a discourse -and nothing that could ever elicit for reply from any well-bred Miss, more than an insipid Yes," or a drawling "No." Every body, in fact, allows the nothingness of modern travelling, and inveighs against the silence and monosyllables of the unhappy creatures he meets with in the mail; but still, every one seems impelled by a mania he can neither resist nor explain, to swell the number of those who annually indulge in this species of penance

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all that relates to funerals, mortcloths, graves, and undertaking in general, he would never have attained his present reputation, had he not been gifted with an original passion for wearing crape, and intense relish for sable garments, that neither time nor education have been able to eradicate. Even so is it with travelling. Let no piece of mechanism, whether male or female, attempt the same; no man of arithmetical principles and syllogistic aspect; nor any virgin, afflicted with pride, prudery, or phlegm. But whenever you find one who, in time and place convenient, can look upon the world and all its concerns as means and materials for mirth and merriment-who can, for a season, discard the gravity and restraint of decorous dulness, and yield himself to laugh at every thing, including himself-one, in short, who in punning is abstemious, in joking indefatigable, and in "deevilry" assiduous,-there, be assured, is one who may take a tour without taking the blue devils, and with whom you may safely ramble for a twelvemonth, if he does not kill you with enjoyment in the first fortnight.

FINE ARTS.

THE AYRSHIRE SCULPTOR.

far the attempt was likely to prove successful, Mr Thom not being then known in Ayr. These doubts seemed to be confirmed, on the latter returning with a very imperfect sketch, taken by placing transparent paWe have been favoured with the following article from the per on the picture. These occurrences happened on the pen of a gentleman whose taste and habits enable him to invest Wednesday, consequently nothing could be done till the subject with a much more than common degrec of interest.] Thursday, when materials were to be procured, and Is the history of the Arts, we know not that there oc- other arrangements made, before the work was absolutecurs a more striking instance of natural genius-mean- ly begun. The surprise, then, may be conceived, on ing, by this use of the term, a certain bias of the mind, the artist returning on the Monday following with the as it were, irresistibly impelling to some particular ex- finished bust. In this work, though somewhat defecercise than in the sculptures from the Poems of Burns, tive as a likeness, the execution, the mechanical details, now exhibiting in Edinburgh. James Thom, the sculp- and the general effect, were wonderful, especially when tor of these (every thing considered) wonderful figures, viewed in connexion with the shortness of the time, and is a native of Ayrshire, and of very respectable parent- the disadvantage of being finished almost from memory age near Tarbolton. Although, like those of his country--the very imperfect outline, already mentioned, being man and inspirer, his relatives were all engaged in agri- the only external guide. It was this general excellence cultural pursuits, (his brothers, we understand, possess that encouraged the proposal of a full-length figure—a large farms,)—the young man himself preferred the oc- proposal to which the artist gave his ready assent, stating cupation of a mason, and was, accordingly, apprenticed that he had wished to undertake something of the kind, to a craftsman in Kilmarnock. This profession was but did not consider it prudent, without any prospect of probably selected as offering the nearest approach to the remuneration, to hazard the expense both of the block undefined workings and predilections of his own inex- of stone and the loss of time. On this Mr Auld offered perienced mind, since he was not, as in the instance of to procure any stone from the neighbouring quarries several sculptors of eminence, thrown first into the trade which the artist might judge fit for his purpose. Several of a stone-mason by the force of circumstances. This days elapsed in this search; in the meantime, the matwould appear from his showing little attachment to the ter was rather laughed at than encouraged; and some drudgery of the art: accordingly, his first master is un-apprehensions of failure, and exposure to consequent derstood to have pronounced him rather a dull appren- comments, being expressed," Perhaps," said the artist, tice. From the beginning he seems to have looked for- endeavouring to re-assure his friends, "I had just betward to the ornamental part of his calling, and in a ter try my hand at a head, as a specimen o' Tam." This country town where there was little or no opportunity of being agreed to, he returned to Crosby churchyard, employment in that line, to those more immediately where he was then employed upon a grave stone. The concerned, he might appear less useful than a less as- day following happened to be one of continued rain, and piring workman. The evidences of young Thom's di- finding that the water filled up his lines, probably, too, ligence and talent at this time, however, still remain in thinking more on "glorious Tam," than on the menumerous specimens of carving in stone, which he him- mento mori he was attempting to engrave, our artist reself still considers, we are told, as superior to any thing solved to take time by the forelock, and to set about the he has yet done. The seeming errors which even the "specimen head" directly. Accordingly, pulling from greatest men have made in the estimate of their own the ruins of the "auld kirk" of Crosby a rabat of the powers, have been commented upon as proverbial tru- door-way, as a proper material for his purpose, he sat isms. The causes of these apparent miscalculations have, himself down among the long rank grass covering the however, not been taken into account. The artist or the graves, and in that situation actually finished the head author alone fully knows the difficulties encountered in before rising. Nay, more, although the day has been the execution of any design,-the triumphs he achieved described to us "as a doun-right pour," so total was his over his own mind and means,-the obstacles both ex- absorption in the work-so complete his insensibility to ternal and intellectual which he had to remove. every thing else, that he declares himself to have been unconscious of the "rattling showers," from the moment he commenced. Such is the power of genuine and natural enthusiasm in a favourite pursuit. This head, which contained, perhaps, more expression than that even of the present figure, decided the matter. Next day, the uninformed mass which now sits in St Andrew's Square, the every thing but living representative of " Heroic Tam," was brought into Ayr, a load for four stout horses, and placed in a proper workshop, within Cromwell's fort.

His term of apprenticeship being expired, Mr Thom repaired to Glasgow in pursuit of better employment.Here his merits were immediately perceived, and so well rewarded, that his wages were considerably higher than the ordinary rate. We feel it proper to advert here pointedly to these circumstances, as honourable alike to Mr Thom and his friends; and as presenting his claims to public patronage in a just light, as the claims of a young man, who, by his talents, had rendered himself truly respectable in his occupation, but who, with laudable ambition, is desirous of rising to a higher profession. In this attempt he can already plead more than one example, and, we are disposed to think, no ordinary qualifications for becoming from a stone mason-a sculptor.

In this latter profession, Mr Thom's career may be dated from the commencement of last winter. Being employed at this time in the immediate neighbourhood, he applied to Mr Auld of Ayr, who has since proved so steady and judicious a friend, for permission to take a sketch from a portrait of Burns, with the intention of executing a bust of the poet. This is a good copy of the original picture by Mr Nasmyth, and is suspended in the very elegant and classical monument, from a design by Mr Hamilton, erected to the memory of the bard on the banks of the Doon, near "Allowa's auld haunted kirk." The permission was kindly granted; doubts, however, being at the same time expressed, how

It may be interesting to mention a few particulars of the manner in which these figures have been composed and finished. "Tam" was selected by the artist as a subject for his chisel. The figure now is understood to bear a strong traditional resemblance to the well-known Thomas Reid, some forty years ago a renowned specimen of a Carric farmer, and who, residing at Shanter, furnished to Burns the prototype of his hero. Mr Auld stipulated a given price, which has since most liberally been doubled, and proposed the subject.

"Souter Johnnie,

His ancient, trusty, drouthy cronie,"

is said to be a striking likeness of a living wight—a cobbler near Maybole; not thatthis individual sat for his portraiture, but that the artist appears to have wrought from the reminiscences of two interviews with which he was favoured, after twice travelling "some lang Scotch

necessary and grateful to genius. They have shown that they properly esteem his works-they have given him commissions, but they have left him to follow his pursuits they have not attempted to withdraw his attention from that very profession, by improvement in which he alone can realize the prospects ever open to talent, sobriety, and industry.

THE DRAMA.

miles," in order to persuade the said "souter" to transfer his body, by means of his pair of soles, from his own to the artist's studio. The bribe of two guineas a-week, exclusive of half-mutchkins but the score," proved, however, unavailing, and the cobbler remained firm to the last. By this refusal," the birkie" has only become poorer by the said couple of guineas, and certain "half-mutchkins drouthier," for so true has the eye of the sculptor proved, that every one is said instantly to recognise the cobbler's phiz and person. A strange perverseness, indeed, or fatality, or what you will, seems to have seized upon all the favoured few selected as fitting archetypes for these admirable figures. For, Tam's "nether man" occasioning some anxiety in the perfection of its sturdy symmetry, a carter, we believe, was laid hold of, and the gamashins being pulled on for half-an-hour, Tam's right leg was finished in rivalship of the said gentleman's supporter. It appears to have been agreed upon that he should return at a fitting opportunity, having thus left Tam “hirpling;" but in the interval, the story of the sitting unfortunately taking air, and the soubriquet of "Tam o' Shanter" threatening to attach to the lawful and Christian appellations of the man of carts, no inducement could again bring him within the unhallowed precincts of our sculp-buried five persons in the ruins. This happened in Autor's atelier.

It will, doubtless, excite the admiration of every one in the slightest degree conversant with the Arts, that these figures, so full of life, ease, and character, were thus actually executed without model, or drawing, or palpable archetype whatsoever. The artist, indeed, knows nothing of modelling, and so little of drawing, that we question if he would not find difficulty in making even a tolerable sketch of his own work. The chisel is his modelling-tool-his pencil-the only instrument of his art in short, with which he is acquainted, but which he handles in a manner, we may say, almost unprecedented in the history of sculpture. This, however, is yet the minor part; for we think, nay, are sure, we discover in this dexterity of hand, in this unerring precision of eye, in this strong, though still untutored, conception of form and character-the native elements of the highest art. These primordial attributes of genius, by proper culture, may do honour to the country and to their possessor. At all events, instruction will refine and improve attempts in the present walk of art, even should study be unable to elevate attainment to a higher. Now, however, it would be not only premature, but unjust, to criticise these statues as regular labours of sculpture. They are to be regarded as wonderful, nay, almost miraculous, efforts of native, unaided, unlearned talent—as an approach to truth almost in spite of nature and of science; but they do not hold with respect to legitimate sculpture the high-souled-the noblest the severest of all arts-the same rank as in painting, the works of the Dutch masters do as compared with the lofty spirits of the Roman. Precisely for this reason, that while similar subjects are not only fit, but often felicitous, subjects for the pencil-they are altogether improper objects of sculptural representation. Mr Thom may be assured we do not say this to discourage him-we are his best friends in recommending diligence and deep study of his profession. He has yet to commence from the very commencement.

Much will depend upon the patronage and judgment of his countrymen. With the melancholy fate of Burns before them, we trust both parties will avoid the errors which in each destroyed the happiness, and blasted even the talents, of that unhappy son of genius. Mr Thom, it gives us the sincerest pleasure to state, has hitherto been distinguished and respected for sober habits, and manly steadiness of character; nor can we refrain from commending, as a future example, the judicious manner in which his patrons in Ayrshire have acted. There the upper ranks have lent that countenance which is at once

Ir was the building of the New Town that led to the building of the present Theatre Royal, which was not completed under an outlay of L.6900. This expense seems to have been more than Mr Ross, the first patentee, was prepared to bear; and his resources being cramped, he opened with a very indifferent company, and in consequence found it impossible to make his establishment pay. An accident, too, happened at the time, which, while it affected the public generally, bore against the Theatre in particular. We allude to the falling of the North Bridge;-when nearly finish. ed it gave way above the vaults at the south end, and

gust 1769, and the Theatre opened in the December following, just at the moment when the spirit of enterprise, which was so rapidly inducing the extension of the New Town, had received a check of so serious a nature. It was not till 1772 that the bridge was made passable, and the houses were not finished, nor the shops occupied, nor the street opened for carriages, till 1778. The wealth, however, which about this period existed in Edinburgh, finally succeeded in carrying every thing before it. The mighty advantages which accrued to the city from the accession of the New Town, in the short space of fifteen or twenty years, are hardly to be credited. In 1763 the revenue of the Post Office was only about L.11,000 per annum; in 1783 it had risen to L 40,000. In 1763 there were only three stage-coaches in all Scotland-two of these went between Edinburgh and Leith, with three horses, a coachman, and outrider; and the other departed once a-month for London, and was about eighteen days upon the journey; in 1783 there was not a place of any consequence in the country to which there were not coaches regularly every day, and fifteen left Edinburgh for London every week, and reached the capital in four days. In 1763 people of the first rank and quality lived in the old-fashioned houses situated in the dark and confined closes of the Old Town; in 1783 these houses were possessed only by persons of the humblest grade, while not the nobility alone, but even several of the ministers and professors kept their own carriages, and lived in the first style of splendour and fashion. In 1763 the shore-dues at Leith amounted to L.580; in 1783 they were not under L.4000. These are only a few instances of the rapid growth of prosperity, in Edinburgh; but they serve to mark the general features of the times, and, of course, with this prosperity, theatrical entertainments gradually acquired increasing interest and importance.

Mr Ross, perceiving that he had not the talents exactly qualified to suit him for a manager, let the Theatre on a lease of three years, for five hundred guineas ayear, to the celebrated Foote, who, in 1770, brought down an excellent company with him from his own Theatre of the Hay Market, and cleared one thousand pounds in a single season. Finding it inconvenient, however, to be so much absent from London, he subset the Theatre for the remaining two years of his lease to Messrs Digges and Bland, the former of whom, in particular, was then well known in Edinburgh as a clever and favourite performer. They were so well pleased with their bargain, that they renewed the agreement with Mr Ross for five years more; but it is not understood

that they finally made much money. The Theatre was impossibility, for the best annual actress that could be afterwards rented for separate years by Corri and Wil-procured, to support the situation of either, in the smallkinson; and in 1781 the house and patent, and whole est degree of comparison; or to preserve the pieces in property, were purchased from Ross by Mr Jackson, which they had so recently appeared upon the acting himself an actor, and man of ability, being the author of stock list of the theatre." a "History of the Scottish Stage," which is creditably written.

In the year 1787, the time for which the patent had been originally granted having expired, it was renewed to Mr Jackson, being taken out in the names of the Duke of Hamilton and the Right Hon. Mr Dundas. The campaign of 1788 opened with every probability of success; but a circumstance happened which materially affected the manager's interests. Messrs Fennell and Woods were the principal tragedians of the company. The latter had been long known to the Edinburgh audience, and was much liked; the former was not so well known, and not so popular. In the play of "Venice Preserved," Woods had always sustained the part of Jaffier; but in casting it for July 9th, 1788, during an engagement of Mrs Siddons, Jackson thought that Woods would play Pierre better than Fennel, and that Fennell would play Jaffier better than Woods. The piece was arranged accordingly, and so announced in the bills; but the public were not at all satisfied at this attempt, as they construed it, to make their favourite Woods give way to Fennell. On the day before the tragedy was acted, the manager received an anonymous letter, couched in the following terms :" Sir,-If the parts of Jaffier and Pierre are not differently cast before to-morrow, the play will not be allowed to go on. It is unpardonable in a manager to thrust a fellow into a part which he must be sensible he is totally incapable of performing. The Fublic." Jackson, however, had made his arrangements, and was resolved to abide by them. The conse quence was, that for three nights no performances were allowed to proceed in the theatre, and there was a regular riot every evening. Fennell, unfortunately, on the first night made a speech, which only exasperated the minds of the public to such a degree, that they were resolved to get quit of him altogether; and on the 15th the ma. nager received the following letter, signed by Henry Erskine, and one hundred and sixty two other advocates and writers :-" Sir,-We are of opinion, that Mr Fennell's late deportment to the public, and your conduct as manager with regard to that matter, require a very ample apology from both, testifying your deep regret for having failed in the respect due to them; and that, if Mr Fennell refuses to make such an apology, you ought immediately to dismiss him. And we take this method of intimating to you, that if this opinion is not complied with, by making the apology suggested on Wednesday evening, or dismissing Mr Fennell, that neither we nor our families will hereafter frequent your theatre, or show you any countenance as manager, except that, from our high regard to Mrs Siddons, we shall postpone executing our resolution till her engagement expires." There was now no alternative. Poor Jackson made the apology demanded, and, as this was a concession Fennell refused, intimated, that "it gave him inexpressible concern to be under the disagreeable necessity of informing the audience, that Mr Fennell was withdrawn."

For ten years Mr Jackson continued to act as manager, with various success. His company was always respectable; and there were some, both among the male and female resident performers, who are still remembered by many, who are older now than they were then, as possessing attractions, which to them have not appeared to be surpassed or equalled by those of any of their successors. This, however, may only be imagination, the fondness with which we cling to early associations, when every thing was new, and the capacity of enjoyment more fresh and keen. Though comparatively but a few years have passed, it is only in the recollection of the old, that the names of the performers resident here towards the conclusion of the last century, whose abilities delighted, or whose beauty charmed, continue to exist. To the present generation, with one or two exceptions, they are all alike unknown; but such is ever the actor's fate. During the period of which we speak, most of the first-rate London performers visited Edinburgh. Among these were Henderson, Pope, King, Bowden, Lee Lewes, Yates, and John Kemble; and Miss Farren, Mrs Pope, Mrs Jordan, Mrs Esten, Mrs Yates, Mrs Baddeley, and Mrs Siddons. It was on Saturday, May 22, 1784, that Mrs Siddons first appeared on the Edinburgh stage, in the part of Belvidera. She was then in the very zenith of her fame; and in order to enable the manager to make her a suitable offer, the nobility and gentlemen raised L.200 by subscription, to which, L.200 was added from the treasury of the theatre, and the four hundred was offered to Mrs Siddons for an engagement of nine nights. She preferred, however, to take her chance of the receipts, and to halve the profits of each night, after the expenses had been deducted. By this means Mrs Siddons made a very handsome sum: her share of the receipts amounted to L.467; she was also presented with the L.200, which had been subscribed by the noblemen and gentlemen; she had a clear benefit at raised prices, which gave her L.180; and she received, in presents of plate and gold tickets, at least L.120; so that her nine nights were worth to her L.967. On the other hand, taking the manager's various expenses into consideration, his profits were only L.347. This Mr Jackson states decidedly (and we believe he is correct) to be no equivalent for the depression which takes place in the receipts before a star appears, and the public satiety which ensues afterwards. "The introduction of exotics," he remarks, "for a short period, at any theatre out of London, must be attended with inconveniences to a manager, in a greater or a less degree, according to local circumstances, or the temper of the times. For though the wishes of the audience may be thereby gratified to the uttermost, and the spirit and exertions of the manager for a moment extolled; yet the hour of reflection soon returns to the latter, and satiety These disturbances were thus put an end to; but Mr and lassitude pervades the town. The best selected Jackson does not seem to have ever afterwards felt quite pieces, most respectably cast, are represented to empty so comfortable in his situation. During the year 1789, benches; and the hundreds that have been taken in a nevertheless, his clear profits amounted to L.726; but week, by the attraction of merit or fashion, are thus ex-in 1790, upon balancing his accounts, he found he had pended in support of an expensive company, through the remainder of a long and dragging season." "Mrs Siddons's cast," he adds, "is Isabella, Belvidera, Lady Randolph, and all in that line. Mrs Jordan's, the Country Girl, the Miss Hoydens, and sprightly comedy. Thus, if those ladies are seen in twelve characters each, it proves the occasion of twenty-four plays being laid upon the shelf. For so attractive have they been found in those particular performances, in which they are allowed chiefly to excel, that it would be next to an

sustained a loss of L.21. This was partly owing to the establishment of a kind of minor theatre, which, under the title of a Circus, thinned the benches of the Theatre Royal. "The supposition of two theatres existing in Edinburgh," says Mr Jackson, “even increased as it is in size, and the number of its inhabitants, cannot for a moment be entertained by those who are the least conversant in stage matters." He makes good this assertion by referring even to London, and more especially to Dublin; where, to prevent the ruin of all parties, the