INDE X. . . A New Spirit of the Age ; by Horne, 259 German Translations of Scottish Songs, 35, 118 Abyssinia ; Harris's Travels in, 182, 232 Germany, Mrs. Shelley's Rambles in, Actresses, Our; or, Stage Favourites, 317, 435 630 Gore, Mrs.; Papers by, . 1, 69, 167, 205, 273, 348 597 Gordon's (Mrs.) Fortunes of the Falconers, 321 America; Godley's Letters from, 317, 435 | Gossip on Sensuous Influences, 789, 793, 794 | Grant, Mrs., of Laggan; her Memoirs, &c., Antigua and the Antiguans, 197 Grant's Impressions of Ireland and the Irish, 766 312, 611, 634 Grant's Paris and its People, Australian Sketches; by Thomas M'Combie, 95, 152, 308 Gravedigger, The ; a Novel, Authoress ; Scenes in the Life of an, 36, 245 Hamilton (Rev. Dr.) of Leeds, raising a War-cry, 679 630 Harris' (Major) Highlands of Æthiopia, 182, 232 Beau Brummell, Life of; by Jesse, 382 Haverty's Wanderings in Spain, Belle (The) of the Family; a Novel, 789 521, 641 Blanks and Prizes; or, The Wheel of Fortune ; Historical Society, The ; Reminiscences of, a Tale; by Mrs. Gore, 1, 69, 167, 205, 273, 348 Holland's Vital Statistics of Sheffield, . 56 119, 341, 477 Hopes; a Tale, by Miss Bremer, . Bon Gaultier; Papers by, 49, 119, 341, 477, 545 Horne's New Spirit of the Age, 259 442 Howitt's (W.) Translation of a Tale by Nicander, 625 329 Brougham's (Lord) Political Philosophy, 529 | Ireland and its Rulers; Part III., Brummell, Beau; Jesse's Life of, Buchanan on our Taxation and Commercial Policy, 703 Ireland and the Irish ; Grant's Impressions of, 756 622 Ireland, Campaign in; by the Wife of a Colonel, 650, 694 Burns and Clarinda Correspondence, 28 Ireland ; Memoirs of the Union with, Burns Festival, The; at Ayr, August 1844, 545 Ireland | Sketch of the Great Debate on, (Session 237 337 784 729 Carlén, Emily, the Swedish Novelist, Carpenter, The; and The Capuchin Monk, 625 Jacky-Jacky, the Australian Bushranger, Chadwick's Report on Interment in Towns, 193 Januarius (Saint); Liquefaction of his Blood, 531 674 Jeffrey's (Lord) Contributions to Edinburgh Reriew, 12 382 China, History of; by Thornton, Clarinda and Burns Correspondence, 789 Common Law and Special Jury; by an Irishman, 303 King, Lord ; Speeches and Writings of, Complete Suffrage Party, 85, 156 447 642 Laing's (Samuel) Translation of the Heimskringla ; or, Chronicles of the Kings of Norway, 281, 369 216 442 591, 664, 740 793 429 784 668 462 20 Mahon's (Lord) History of England, vol. iv., 462 Dun's History of the Oregon Territory, 601 Marryat's (Captain) The Settlers in Canada, 807 Mauritius ; Backhouse's Visit to the, Earth-Stopper, The; by John Mills, 488 Maxwell's Wanderings in the Highlands, &c. 190 Eldon; Life of Lord Chancellor, 570,654 Meredith's (Mrs) Notes, &c. of New South Wales, 805 English Factories and Irish Franchise, 337 Mexico ; Discovery and Conquest of, 294 Mills' Our Hearth and Homestead, 554, 613,681,757 Erastus on Excommunication ; transl. by Dr. Lee, 467 Mills' (John); Papers by, . 488, 554, 613, 681 Mills' The English Fireside ; a Tale, 398 679 784 Federalism; Mr. O'Connell and, 748 Morocco; French Aggression, and English Accusers, 677 Fisher's Annuals for 1845, 793,794 Morrison's (John) Reminiscences of Sir W. Scott,&c. 15 213 49 591 447 104, 141, 591,794 . . 55 . . . . . 15 . Page Page 493 36, 245 68 281, 369 219 Shelley's (Mrs.) Rambles in Germany and Italy, 729 417 20 182, 232 237 401 266 521, 641 Sporting Legend (A) of Old England, by J. Mills, 787 357 673 554, 613, 681, 757 Strife and Peace ; a Novel ; by Miss Bremer, 141 308 Swedish Novels, 493, 442, 469 43 Tahiti. The French and the Missionary Consul at, 677 36 Taxation and Commercial Policy of Britain, 703 645, 697 405 728 603 570, 654 608, 677, 748 364 472 800 War called for, by Dr. Hamilton of Leeds, 679 674 530 417 423 Wheel of Fortune, The ; by Mrs. Gore. See Blanks. 414 641 423 85, 156 . . . POETRY. Page 307 On Miss Helen Faucit's Juliet 122 The Invitation of the Tavern Dan- 343 53 356 487 124 368 The Leander of the Forth, 121 244 The Little Maid and the Flowers, 589 345 The Loyalist of the Vendée, 484 127 The Massacre of the M.Pherson, 478 54 131 The Mistress of Greyling Grange, 492 314 Sonnet to Thomas Carlyle, 588 The National Anti-Corn-Law League, 42 54 588 The Norsemen, 381 11 Stanzas on the Burns Festival, 696 The Pic-Nic of Buccleuch, 54 The Ancient Gentlewoman, 581 The Poor Man to his Dead Child, 236 342 The Scheik of Sinai in 1830, 485 129 765 774 The Song of St. Rollox, 120 The Dirge of the Drinker, 590 588 49 696 The Trooper's Song. (Schiller,) 151 588 103 Theckla’s Song, (Schiller's,) 381 231 To a Dying Favourite ; by S. Jervis, 487 585 To Bon Gaultier ; by F. Rimini, 347 53 To Rosalind, (Miss Faucit's,) 123 54 The Interment of Thos. Campbell, 479 To some beautiful Sea-Shells, 587 664 35, 118 . Ву TAIT'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. JANUARY, 1844. BLANKS AND PRIZES; OR, THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE. A TALE. BY MRS. GORE. feebler sex. took the goods the gods provided gratis, but took PART I. amazing care of them. The old-fashioned furniCHEERFULLY overlooking the waters of the ture bequeathed by her grandmother with her Severn, as if taking pleasure in the beauty of its spacious house, was rubbed and scrubbed and bursite, and superior to the interested views usually nished by her diligent hand-maidens, till it acarising from vicinity to a navigable river, stands quired a sort of ironical freshness, like the youthful the town of APSTON, or the town we intend to call airs of an old beau : and had the smallest particle Apston; an airy spot, and a rural : for not only of her curious old china come to mischance, or the are the gardens of the spreading suburbs fair to see, smallest piece of her antique plate been missing, and interspersed with what are called “genteel the magistrates of Apston would have heard of it. residences,” but, in summer time, a very fair crop Her servants were charity girls, taken from the of grass makes its appearance in all but the Mar- poor-house, to be drilled into a knowledge of their ket Place. For Apston has only a single manu- duties : and that their drilling did credit to the factory, to balance against a considerable number crabbed old lady, was avouched by the specklessof widows in easy circumstances, and light-footed ness of her floors and brilliancy of her andirons. single ladies. The tranquillity of the place ap- Miss Lavinia was as good a housewife as though pears to possess an almost conventual charm for the there had been any one to applaud or profit by her housewifery. But not a human being took pleaNo barracks, no manufacturing population, no sure in the neatness and orderliness of her house, colliers or miners within distance, to shake with not even herself. their insubordination the foundations of this peace- It was, however, at least an object of envy. Not ful city of refuge. “The spinsters and the knit-one among the whist-playing widows but would ters in the sun,” pursue their work unmolested; have been thankful to exchange her narrow lodgand the spinsters and widow ladies their whist, ings for the roomy and commodious mansion of without fear of an intruder more dangerous than Miss Lavinia Meade ; and whereas on the gala Dr. Toddles, the meally-mouthed physician-general evenings devoted to receiving the thrones and doof the neighbourhood, or old Mr. Mumbleton, the minions of Apston, the Mayor and his deaf wife, vicar. St. Ursula and her train might have set Dr. Toddles and his toadying sister, and a horde of up their rest at Apston, without peril to their minor Misses of small accompt, the rich old maid eleven thousand reputations. gloried in an exhibition of her superior gentility Among the singlest of the single ladies, and re- and household treasures : there was some excuse siding in the house usually pointed out to strangers for the covetous eyes with which many contemas the best in the town, was Miss Lavinia Meade; plated her establishment, and many more specu-a damsel who, for the last thirty years, had gone lated, like Alexander's courtiers, on the future by the opprobrious title of old maid; and who, distribution of her inheritance. born to a good fortune, had spent the greater part For Miss Lavinia had no immediate relations. of her life in rendering it better. Why, it was The nearest was an aunt, married in British Amehard to say: for those who amass fortunes for their rica, of whose family little was known at Apston; successors, have usually objects of affection to in- and the old lady had been so careful to circulate herit their property ; whereas Miss Lavinia ex- in the town that she could devise her property to hibited no sort of sympathy with her family or whom she pleased, and that the public charities of fellow-creatures. Her self-denying thrift, there- Apston had better look to themselves, that her fore, probably arose from an innate taste for whole tea-drinking acquaintance were justified in hoarding. trusting that the heirless old maid might win her But though supposed to spend only a fourth way to Heaven by loving at least one of her neighpart of her income, and to waste no portion of bours as herself. even that on the superfluities of life, she not only In defiançe, therefore, of wind and weather, and YOL X1,-NO. CXX). in spite of variabilities of temper, characteristic of relationship as if no other woman in the world were But not a soul among came to be everybody's hero as well as her own. Just, however, as the gossips of Apston, and Every individual of the tabby coterie was familiar Miss Hannah among the rest, had begun to look with his marchings and counter-marchings, his upon this dispensation as unchangeable, a name hair-breadth 'scapes, his hopes of promotion, his escaped the lips of Miss Lavinia Meade, unaccount- chances of leave of absence. The three little Misses ably unfamiliar to the ears of her toadies. She began Prebbles, nieces to the mayor, made spirited to talk of “my cousin Captain Erskine;” nay, sketches of light infantry officers, manæuvring at even to accept the loan of newspapers on the piea the head of their companies, both on and off the of wishing to see whether the Gazette contained field of battle,—all supposed to bear reference to honourable mention of this hitherto unmentioned Miss Lavinia's cousin ; while the Toddleses were kinsman. For the Peninsular war was at its often heard to whisper, that if Captain Erskine fiercest ; and there was every excuse for those who obtained leave of absence, they only trusted no imhad Captain-cousins, occasionally feeling hysteri- portant movement of the French armies might take cal at the blowing of the post horn ; and no sooner place while his services were withheld from the had the Apstonians satisfied themselves that Cap-cause of his country! Though Wellington, in tain Erskine was not a man of straw, that he had short, might be the hero of Great Britain, in a local habitation in Lord Wellington's camp and the eyes of Apston, Erskine was the man. a name in the Army List, than they became agi- At length, within a year of the “glorious termitated in their turn with sudden interest in the nation” of the Spanish war, the gallant corps, of fortunes of the campaign; and echoed with an which Captain Erskine formed a part, was ordered unanimous “ Amen” the opinion of Miss Lavinia, home; that is, all that was left of the gallant that the advisers and maintainers of that bloody corps : for on its disembarkation at Portsmouth, and devastating war, would have enough to an- there were scarcely men left to return, with an swer for. effective cheer, the warm salutations with which “ To think of so many fine young men, the they were greeted by their fellow-countrymen on hopes of so many honourable families, sacrificing shore. Worn and torn, they looked like anything their valuable lives in behalf of a set of cigar-sinok- rather than the victorious troops of the conqueror ing, frowsy, priest-ridden Spaniards!” cried Miss of the modern Cæsar. Toddles, with a somewhat single-sided view of con- Apston, however, still beheld them in its mind's tinental politics ; upon which sympathetic hint, eye as the élite of the British army; and, now that all the old ladies, far gone in their cups—of hyson there was an immediate probability of an introducor bohea-groaned in unison. tion to Captain Erskine, scarcely wondered at the There were those, however, in Apston who triumphant joy of Miss Lavinia ; or the zeal with whispered that Miss Toddles had appeared quite which the gilt frames and looking-glasses of the as much startled as her neighbours, on first hear-White House were unpapered, and its lustres and ing the name of Captain Erskine ; and protested girandoles released from their canvas-bags, in order that all these lamentations over the perils of “fine to do honour to him who was about to do so great an young men, the heirs of prosperous families,” pur- honour to them all. The idea of possessing familiarly ported only to discover the nature of the old lady's by their firesides a man still reeking from the smoke feelings and intentions towards her kinsman. But of the cannon of Soult,-a man fresh from the whatever curiosity either she or others might razing of cities and sacking of convents,—was alentertain on the subject, was soon appeased : most too much for the sensibility of a circle to for from that day forth, nothing but “Captain whom even a militia-officer was a rarity. The Erskine" was heard of at the White House. younger Misses only trusted he might not prove Whether, as some asserted, Miss Lavinia had too martial and ferocious for their susceptibility ; only lately been made coguizant of his exis- the elder ones saw, with envious feelings, that Miss tence, by a deathbed letter from her aunt, (a Lavinia was no longer ashamed, though her eneyounger sister of her mother, married to an Ame- mies spoke to her in the gate, rican loyalist,) or whether she had kept the secret On the evening it was known that Captain in her heart of hearts to be wreaked in vengeance Erskine would arrive at the White House by the at some moment of peculiar spite upon the aspir- London coach, all Apston held its breath with ants to her inheritance, certain it is that from the emotion. By the middle of the following day, moment of avowal, she appeared as proud of the one began to inquire of the other, whether the |
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