of teeth, which, in her innocent vivacity, were fre- "The wind, which had been so deadly still in quently disclosed; the fresh, yet not too bright the morning, began at first to wail and sigh, as if glow of a healthy complexion, tinging a skin like bemoaning beforehand the evils which it might per. the drifted snow, spoke her genuine Scandinavian petrate by its fury, like a madman in the gloomy descent. A fairy form, less tall than that of state of dejection which precedes his fit of violence; Minna, but even more finely moulded into sym- then gradually increasing, the gale howled, raged, metry; a careless, and almost childish lightness of|| and roared with the full fire of a northern storm. step; an eye that seemed to look on every object || It was accompanied by showers of rain mixed with with pleasure, from a natural and serene cheerful- || hail, which were dashed with the most unrelenting ness of disposition, attracted even more general admiration than the charms of her sister, though perhaps that which Minna did excite, might be of a more intense as well as a more reverential cha

racter.

rage against the hills and rocks with which the traveller was surrounded, distracting his attention in spite of his utmost exertions, and rendering it very difficult for him to keep the direction of his journey in a country where is neither road, nor even the slightest track to direct the steps of the wanderer, and where he is often interrupted by large pools of water, lakes, and lagoons, All these inland waters were now lashed into sheets of trembling foam, much of which, carried off by the fury of the whirlwind, was mingled with the gale, and transported far from the waves of which they had lately made a part; while the salt relish of the drift, which was pelted against his face, shewed Mordaunt that the spray of the more distant ocean, disturbed to frenzy by the storm, was mingled with that of the inland

"The dispositions of these lovely sisters were not less different than their complexions. In the kindly affections, neither could be said to excel the other, so much were they attached to their father and to each other. But the cheerfulness of Brenda mixed itself with the every-day business of life, and seemed inexhaustible in its profusion. The less buoyant spirit of her sister, appeared to bring to society a contented wish to be interested and pleased with what was going forward, but was rather placidly carried along with the stream of mirth and pleasure, than disposed to aid its pro-lakes and streams." gress by any efforts of her own. She endured mirth rather than enjoyed it; and the pleasures in which she most delighted, were those of a graver and more solitary cast. The knowledge which is derived from books was beyond her reach; Zetland afforded few opportunities in those days of studying the lessons bequeathed

"By dead men to their kind;

and Magnus Troil, such as we have described him,

was not a person within whose mansion the means of such knowledge was to be acquired. But the book of nature was before Minna, that noblest of volumes, where we are even called to wonder and to admire, even when we cannot understand."

Triptolemus Yellowley, an agricultural theorist and innovator, is appointed by the Royal Chamberlain of the Orkneys and Shetland, to carry agricultural improvement into these barren isles. This gentleman establishes himself in Zetland with his sister Barbara, whose economical virtues are carried to an excess, which forms as ludicrous a contrast with the rude hospitality of the indigenous inhabitants, as do the learned innovations of Mr. Triptolemus Yellowley, with their careless and amphibious mode of life. These characters are painted in a happy vein of humour: the storm adverted to drives Mordaunt to the dwelling of Mr. Yellowley for shelter, whither also by the same circumstance is driven "Norna of the Fitful-head." the Meg

Young Mertoun was a favoured visitor to Magnus Troil, and the festivities of Burgh Wertra, his residence, never missed his wel-Merrilies of the novel, and designed "the come presence. The Zetland gossips readily most fearful woman in all the isles." assigned the youth one of Troil's fair daughters, but his attentions to the beauties bore rather the character of brotherly affection than of love, and to which of them he aspired, the penetration of the honest tattlers did not enable them to decide. In a return from one of these visits the young Mordaunt encounters a storm, in the description of which the author affords us a grand specimen of his descriptive powers. No. 157.-Vol. XXV.

"What new tramper is this, echoed the distracted Baby, whom the quick succession of guests had driven well nigh crazy with vexation.”"As she spoke, a woman tall enough almost to touch the door with her cap, stepped into the room, and pronouncing with a solemn voice, The blessing of God and Saint Ronald on the open door, and their braid malison and mine upon close handed churls!" "

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To some expressions of dissatisfaction from Triptolemus, touching the apprehended consequences to his larder, the fearful woman indignantly breaks forth.

crificing knife or dagger, as the imagination of the
spectator chose to assign to the wearer the character
of the priestess or of a sorceress. In her hand she
held a staff, squared on all sides, and engraved
with Runic characters and figures, and forming one
of those portable and perpetual characters which
were used among the ancient natives of Scandi-
have passed for a divining rod.
navia, and which, to a superstitious eye, might

"What must be amended, sordid slave ?' said the stranger, Norna, turning at once upon him with an emphasis that made him start- What must be amended? Bring hither, if thou wilt, thy new fangled coulters, spades, and harrows, alter the implements of our fathers from the plough

share to the mouse-trap; but know thou art in the the inhabitants of the island, looked with observland that was won of old by the flaxen-haired Kompions of the North, and leave us their hospi-ance, many with fear, and almost all with a sort of

veneration."

tality at least, to show we come of what was once
noble and generous. I say to you beware—while
Norna looks forth at the measureless waters, from
the crest of Fitful-head, something is yet left that
resembles power
of defence. If the men of Thule
have ceased to be the champions, and spread the
banquet for the raven, the women have not forgot-
ten the arts that lifted them of yore into queens
and prophetesses.'

"Such were the appearance, features, and attire

of Norna of the Fitful-head, upon whom many of

Norna, who has the reputation of being in league with the spirits of darkness, treats Mordaunt with cordial attention, and counsels him to depart. A storm ensues, which gives an opportunity to exhibit a grand invocation by the reputed sorceress.

The woman who pronounced this singular tirade, was as striking in appearance as extrava

gantly lofty in her pretensions and in her language She might well have represented on the stage, so far as features, voice, and stature were concerned, the Bonduca or Boadicea of the Britons, or the sage Velleda, Aurinia, or any other fated Pythoness, who ever led to battle a tribe of the ancient Goths. Her features were high and well formed, and would have been handsome but for the ravages of time, and the effects of exposure to the severe weather of her country. Age, and perhaps sorrow, had quenched, in some degree, the fire of a dark blue eye, whose hue almost approached to black, and had sprinkled snow on such part of her tresses

A shipwreck introduces the Pirate, Captain taken to their boat, which is swamped, and Cleveland, whose crew have imprudently and reaches the shore in a drowning state by all perish, Cleveland alone remains by the ship, means of a plank-he is rescued from a dangerous surf by Mordaunt, who succeeds in restoring animation, not withstanding the entreaties of the natives, who superstitiously consider that a man saved from drowning will seriously injure his preserver. The shipwreck forms a picture of much force and beauty. Mordaunt, in company with his father, descry a vessel in the offing, driving rapidly under a heavy tempest, directly on the precipitous cape; as the ship nears the

abandoned by the crew.

as had escaped from under her cap, and were dis-shore she is determined by the observers to be hevelled by the rigour of the storm. Her upper garment, which dripped with water, was of a coarse dark-coloured stuff, called Wadmaral, then much used in the Zetland Island, as also in Iceland and Norway. But as she threw this cloak back from her shoulders, a short jacket, of dark blue velvet, stamped with figures, became visible, and the vest, which corresponded to it, was of crimson colour, and embroidered with tarnished silver. Her girdle was plaited with silver ornaments, cut in the shape of planetary signs; her blue apron was embroiderèd with similar devices, and covered a petticoat of crimson cloth. Strong thick enduring shoes of the half-dressed leather of the country, were tied with straps like those of the Roman buskins, over her scarlet stockings. She wore in her belt, an ambiguous looking weapon, which might pass for a sa

"All apprehensions were therefore unnecessary, so far as the immediate loss of human lives was concerned; and yet it was not without a feeling of breathless awe that Mordaunt and his father beheld the vessel, that rare masterpiece by which human genius aspires to surmount the waves, and contend with the winds, upon the point of falling a prey to them.

"Onward it came, the large black hulk seemed larger at every fathom's length. She came nearer, until she bestrode the summit of one tremendous billow, which rolled on with her unbroken, till the wave and its burden were precipitated against the rock, and then the triumph of the elements over the work of human hands was at once completed.

One wave, we have said, made the wrecked vessel completely manifest in her whole bulk, as it raised her, and bore her onward against the face of the precipice. But when that wave had receded from the foot of the rock, the ship had ceased to exist; the retiring billow only bore back a quantity of beams, planks, casks, and similar objects, which swept out to the offing, to be brought in again by the next wave, and again precipitated upon the face of the rock."

Cleveland is invited to the residence of Troil, || and becoming a favourite amongst its inmates, excites the jealousy of young Mordaunt; attached to the family by the habits of intimacy, and spell-bound by the attraction of the fair daughter of Troil, Mordaunt is at this time becoming sensible of a feeling nearly akin to love, but which till Cleveland's appearance, has not so far developed itself even in his own breast, as to fix on its object. A meeting takes place between Norna and young Mordaunt, in which she gives him a mysterious and solemn warning of hidden danger, and particularly cautions him to beware of Cleve-cing land. The festival of St. John is kept with a great display of hospitality by the Udaller, who, weaned from his partiality for young Mertoun by the artifices of secret enemies, does not include him in his general invitations. Mordaunt, however, instructed by Norna, attends the festivities uninvited; in his way thither he calls on Triptolemus Yellowly, who bear him company on the way; their mode of travelling is according to the rude custom of the country, on the native hardy shelties or ponies, which are turned loose on the extensive moors, and are so far considered common property, as that every passenger who has occasional use for a poney, does not scruple to take the first he can catch, and appropriates it to his own service for the time he requires. The equipment and appearance of the party is humourously described.

"Three shelties, therefore, were procured from the hill, little shagged animals, more resembling wild boars than any thing of the horse tribe, yet possessed of no small degree of strength and spirit, and able to endure as much fatigue and indifferent usage as any creatures in the world.

"Two of these horses were already provided and fully accoutred for the journey. One of them, destined to bear the fair person of Mrs. Baby, was decorated with a huge side-saddle of venerable an

tiquity-a-mass, as it were, of cushion and padding, from which depended, on all sides, a housing of ancient tapestry, which, having been originally intended for a horse of ordinary size, covered up the diminutive palfrey over whom it was spread, from the ears to the tail, and from the shoulder to the fetlock, leaving nothing visible but its head, which looked fiercely out from these enfoldments, like the heraldic representation of a lion looking out of a bush. Mordaunt gallantly lifted up the slight exertion, placed her upon the summit of her fair Mistress Yellowley, and at the expence of very

mountainous saddle. It is probable that on feeling herself thus squired and attended upon, and experiencing the long unwonted consciousness that she was attired in her best array, some thoughts dawned upon Mrs. Baby's mind, which chequered, for an instant, those habitual ideas about thrift, that formed the daily and all-engrossing occupation of her soul. She glanced her eye upon her faded joseph, and on the long housings of her saddle, as she observed with a smile, to Mordaunt, that travelling was a pleasant thing in fine weather and agreeable company, if' she added, glan

6

a look at a place where the embroidery was somewhat frayed and tattered, it was not sae wasteful to ane's horse's furniture."

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"Meanwhile, her brother stepped stoutly to his steed; and as he chose, notwithstanding the serenity of the weather, to throw a long red cloak over his other garments, his pony was even more completely enveloped in drapery than that of his sister. It happened, moreover, to be an animal of a high and contumacious spirit, bouncing and curveting occasionally under the weight of Triptolemus, with a vivacity which, notwithstanding his Yorkshire descent, rather deranged him in the saddle;-gambols which, as the palfrey itself was not visible, except upon the strictest inspection, had at a little distance, an effect as if they were the voluntary movements of the cloaked cavalier, without the assistance of any other legs than those with which nature had provided him; and, to any who had viewed Triptolemus under such a persuasion, the gravity, and even distress, announced in his countenance, must have made a ridiculous contrast to the vivacious caprioles with which he piaffed along the moor."

93

In the description of the national sports, on this festive occassion, we expected to find our author shine out with his accustomed excellence, but here we are disappointed, the reader of the modern Scottish novel, does not recognise either the vigour or the fidelity he has been accustomed to. The poet Halcro is

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