she clock'd; and the severest blow merely destroyed her equilibrium, turning up her bottom to the light. The Hen, however, is still on the ice.

"We cannot resist inserting the following anecdotes connected with the Hen, or omit gracing our pages with a name so honourable to a place which was his father's birth-spot, and so long his own home; the more especially as they are characteristic of the man. Captain H. Clapperton, the late lamented African traveller, resided at Lochmaben the greater part of those three years-the peacefullest, certainly-perhaps the happiest, of his life-which elapsed between his being paid off in 1817, and his going out upon that expedition. There, dwelling amid scenes which had once formed the ample possessions of his maternal ancestors, and amid the high recollections which have there a local habitation and a name,' he gave himself up to those sports and pastimes which form the occupations of rural life. Amongst others, he joined in our Curling campaigns, but, as might be expected from his inexperience, was a very indifferent player indeed. The President, however, never particular as to the individual skill of his players, upon the receipt of the first challenge from Closeburn, chose him into his rink. This amongst a body of men, who perhaps of all others act up most tenaciously to the no-respecting-of-person principle of detur digniori-and that, too, upon the eve of a contest requiring a concentration of the experience and science of the society, gave rise to no little dissatisfaction. Accordingly, upon the morning of the bonspiel, the President, upon joining his party in the burgh, was surprised to see Clapperton standing aloof, having a raised look, his hands stuck in his sailor's jacket pockets, and whistling loud. He had not time, however, to get at him to enquire the cause, till one of the skips coming up, explained the mystery, by saying, that understanding that Clapperton, and another naval gentleman equally inexpert, had been chosen into his rink, the Curlers were determined not to play the bonspiel unless they were both put out. The President, upon the ground that a soft answer turns away wrath, said something conciliatory -and turned upon his heel. Upon this Clapperton, in an attitude of proud contempt, and pulled up to his height, advanced, with the air and gait of the quarterdeck, to a respectful distance, when, throwing up his hand a la mode navale, he demanded, in a key different from his usual

one, 'Am I to play to-day, Sir, or not?'— Certainly, Clapperton,'- -was the reply 'you shall play if I play.' Upon which, making a salam with his hand, as if he had received the commands of his admiral, he strided back to where his stone-(the Hen, which had belonged to his grandfather, of antiquarian memory)—and besom lay, and seizing upon the former with an air of triumph, he whirled her repeatedly round his head, with as much ease apparently as if she had been nearer seven than to seventy pounds. He then placed her upon his shoulder, and marched off to the Loch, where taking up a position, he walked sentry upwards of an hour before being joined by the rest. The rink in which he played was most successful, beating the opposing President's 21 to 7. It may appear singular how so trivial a circumstance should so highly have excited him a Curler, however, can easily comprehend it. He played with his colossal granite some capital shots, and, no doubt, was not a little complacent that the Skip, who, as the tongue of the trump, had wished to eject him, was, with what comparatively was considered to be a crack rink, thoroughly drubbed.

:

"Upon another occasion, whilst playing in a bonspiel with Tinwald, being challenged by his Skip just whilst in the act of throwing the Hen, he actually held her in the air at arm's length, in the same position, until the orders countermanded were again repeated. His family were all athletic players, in particular his uncle Sandy, who for many years played an immense cairn, upon the principle that no other Curler upon the Lochmaben ice could throw it up but himself. These two incidents, however trivial, discovered the germs of that intrepidity which he afterwards developed so prominently in the field of adventure; and which, far from the land of his home and heart,' purchased for him an early tomb-and a deathless name.

"Speaking of feats of strength, I am tempted to make a slight digression. We are informed that there have been instances of throwing a Curling stone one English mile upon ice. It was no uncommon thing in days of yore, and there are many still alive who have done it, to throw across the Kirk Loch from the Orchard to the Skelbyland—a feat not much short of the above. Upon the occasion, we believe, of a match with Tinwald, Laurie Young, the strongest player amongst them, challenged the Lochmaben party to a trial of arm. Their president stepped out, and taking bis stone, threw it with such strength across the breadth of the

us.'

"The Tutor, another remarkable stone, is perhaps one of the oldest upon our ice. It is so called after its owner -Dickson; but how he got his etymon does not appear. Many wonderful anecdotes relating to it are still afloat, which we reluctantly pass by. We merely enumerate Skelbyland, the Craig, Wallace, Steel-cap, the Scoon, Bonaparte, Hughie, Red-cap, the Skipper, as all noted and associated with the names and feats of other days. Many a good whinstane lies in the bottom of the surrounding Lochs.

"Old Bonaparte, who flourished cir. 1750 and downwards, was the first who had a regular formed polished curlingstone upon our ice. Probably a Sanquhar one; and a gift from Mr M'Murdo, the Duke's Chamberlain. He used to be frequently at Drumlanrig Castle playing matches; and it is still recollected, upon one special occasion, that a chaise, a rara avis in those days, was sent down for him, to go and play a banter for a large amount, against the champion upon ice of the adjoining district. His wily opponent, however, upon seeing him throw his stone for an end or two, gave in. Previous to this period, to say truth, the stones upon the Lochmaben ice were of a wretched description enough. Most of them being sea-stones, of all shapes, sizes, and weights. Some were threecornered, like those equilateral cocked hats which our divines wore in a century that is past-others like ducksothers flat as a frying pan. Their handles, which superseded holes for the fingers and thumb, were equally clumsy and inelegant; being mal-constructed resemblances of that hook-necked biped, the goose."

Ice-ana is a curious chapter-"a kind of lumber-room for such odds and ends about Curling as we could not conveniently weave into our general narrative-and which we yet thought it a pity to omit." For example, what means that well-known phrase on the Lochmaben ice," We soutered them?" There were towards the close of the last century, a rink of seven players, all shoemakers. So expert in the Curling art were those knights of the lapstone, that for a number of years, they not only fought nd conquered all who opposed them, ut frequently without allowing their

opponents to reckon even a solitary shot. We "soutered them" thus became a favourite phrase. So proud waxed these indomitable souters, that they not only "bragged all Scotland, but even set the world at defiance upon ice." No curlers coming from the continent to contend with them, at last "our president, then a youth, chose six curlers of the parish-and beat them! To give us some faint notion of the collective prowess of these doughty carles, we dine's forte to birse a needle, i. e. he are informed that it was Deacon Jarwould nick a bore so scientifically, that he would undertake, having first attached, with a piece of shoemaker's wax, two needles to the side of two curling-stones just the width of the one he played with apart-and upon two stones in front similarly apart, and on the line of direction, having affixed two birses, he played his stone so accurately, that in passing through the port, it should impel the birses forward through the eyes of the needles. This feat, though unique in its kind, has been often rivalled, we are told, by living members of ' our society.""

Some Mouse waldite skips having Lochmaben Curler in Dumfries, gave once on a time foregathered with a a challenge-but they were nothing in the hands of the Invincibles. Indeed they would have been soutered outright, but for one of the Lochmaben party, who was bribed by the promise of a goose for dinner, and a black lamb for his daughter, to let them get a shot or two. One of the victorious party encountered, at the commencement of the spiel, a huge red crag, which he struck with such force, that he sent it twenty yards' distance from the tee, and made it tumble over the dam-dyke. A singular shot once occurred on the Ayrshire ice. Two parties were playing a short distance from each otherwith a quantity of snow between them scraped off the ice. The player having to take the winner, and being requested to play with all his strength, missed his aim, but his stone went over the barrier, and struck off the adverse winner upon the neighbouring tee. That was as funny as it was fatal and fortuitous.

True that Curling is confessedly somewhat of a boisterous game—“ a

roarin' play," as Burns has it-" but there the manners rule the revelry," and all Curlers on the transparent board are gentlemen. Indeed, the nation of gentlemen owe much to the influence of this generous pastime. There is an excellent letter in the Appendix, from a clergyman, (Mr Somerville?) in which he declares, that he never heard an oath, or an indecent expression made use of upon the ice. All ranks, he says, are there mixed together-the lower seem anxious to prove themselves not unworthy of the society of their superiors; and the latter are aware that they would have just cause to be ashamed, were they to yield to the former in those points which are essential in constituting a true gentleman. Not only upon the grand occasion of parish spiels, but even on less important rencontres, there appears always to be infused into the minds of the participators a kind of honourable and gentlemanlike feeling, which, in many of them, may not be remarkable upon other occasions-and he says he has frequently had occasion to observe, that that feeling gradually insinuated itself into the manners, so as to become a distinguishing feature in the character even of men in the lowest stations of life. "Had this not been the case, and had I found that I could not have indulged myself in this exhilarating sport, without compromising the clerical character, great though the sacrifice would have been, I certainly would, without hesitation, have suppressed my ardour as a Curler; but, so far from experiencing any pernicious results from such indulgences, I find it attended with the very best consequences; nor can any thing be better calculated, when the days are shortest and coldest, to refresh and invigorate both the body and mind."

Nothing can be more amusing to a philosophic bystander, who may be no great deacon in the art, but admires the practice of it, than to watch the faces and figures of the competitors. What infinite varieties of grotesque and picturesque gesticulation and attitude! And what an imaginative and poetical language! As, for example

1. Fit fair and rink straight-Draw a shot-Come creeping down-A canny

forehan'-Straight ice and slow-Just wittyr high-A tee shot-A patlid.

2. O! for a guard-Owre the colly, and ye're a great shot-Fill the PortBlock the ice-Guard the winner.

3. Sweep, sweep-Gi'e him heelsBring him down-Polish clean-Kittle weel.

4. Side for side-Cheek by jowlWithin the brough-A gude sidelin shot -A stane on ilka side of the cockee.

5. A rest on this stane-Just break an egg-Lie in the bosom of the winner -Tee length-Keep the crown o' the rink.

6. An angled guard.

7. A little of the natural twist-Mind the bias-Borrow a yard.

8. Haud the win' aff him, he's gleg.
9. Tak' him through.

10. Don't let him see that again. 11. Break the guards-Redd the ice. 12. A smart ride-A thundering ride -Tak' your will o' that ane-Pit smeddum in't Come snooving down white ice-just follow that.

13. Don't flee the guards.
14. Watch that ane.
15. A glorious stug.

16. Come chuckling up the port. 17. A canny shot through a narrow port.

18. An ell gane on the winner-Raise this stane a yard.

19. A gude inwick-An inwick aff the

snaw.

20. Come under your grannie's wing. 21. O man, ye hae played it wiseTak' yoursel' by the han'-I'll gie a snuff for that.

It would be the height of rashness in any man to say that he ever saw a dinner, who has never dined as Curler among Curlers. True that ilka chiel has had a caulker for his "morning," and brose or bannocks, not without beef or ham, "material breakfast;" so that he leaves home with a stomach aiblins slightly distended, but " that not much;"-his face ruddy but not flushed ;-and in his pleasant pupils the joyful light of hope, or say with Shakspeare

"Joy candles in his eyes." Miles off over moors and mountains

may lie, yet unswept by any besom board." No cheese and bread, (in but of Boreas, the "transparent both cheese and butter precedence Scotland we always invariably give over bread-laying them on thick in strong strata, each deeper than the bread-base)-no cheese and bread,

we say, in the pouch of your true Curler-no, nor yet pocket-pistol. His inside has a lining that will last till the sun sinks-and his stomach, in sympathy with his heart, would scorn even a mouthful chance-offered at the tee. He hungers and thirsts but for glory; for the character of his parish is at stake, and each roaring rink is alive with man's most eager passions. But all the while his appetite is progressing, though unconscious the Curler of its growth; and at the close of spiel or bonspiel, as soon as the many mingling emotions born of victory and of defeat have subsided into an almost stern but surely no sullen calm, the curling crew, jolly boys all, discover that they are ravenous. You probably have lunched-and live to lament it when your dull dead eye falls beamless on undesired dinner. But lo! and hark! stag-strong across the wide moors, crunching beneath their feet in the glitterance of the frost-woven snows, in many a brother band, bound the cheery Curlers to the celebrated change-house at the Auld Brig-end, in summer seen not till you are on the green before the door, the umbrage such of that elm-tree grove, from time immemorial a race of giants-but now visible its low straw roof, with all its icicles, to the close-congregating Curlers, with loud shouts hailing it from the last mountain top. Yon's the gawcy gudewife at the door, looking out, for the last time, for her guests, through the gloaming-and next instant at the kitchen fire, assisting to tak aff the pat," and to dish on the dresser the beef and greens. For she leaves the care o' the howtowdies to the limmers, and the tongues, on this occasion, she intrusts to the gudeman-some twenty years older than his wife, uniformly the case in a' sma' inns, illustrious for vittals

"For sage experience bids us thus de

clare."

'Tis little short of miraculous to see how close a company of Curlers will pack. The room cannot be more than some twenty feet by twelveyet it unaccountably contains almost all the rink. Some young chiels, indeed, are in the trance teasing the hizzies on their way through with the

trenchers-and some auld men are in the spence-and a few callants are making themselves useful in the kitchen, while a score or so perhaps have gone straight homeward from the ice for private reasons-such, possibly, as scolding wives, (most of them barren,) into which no writer of an article in a magazine, as it appears to us, is at liberty to institute a public enquiry.

But look at that dinner!

The table is all alive with hot animal food. A steam of rich distilled perfumes reaches the roof, at the lowest measurement seven feet high. A eavoury vapour! The feast takes all its name and most of its nature from-beef and greens. The one corned, the other crisp-the two combined, the glory of Martinmas. The beef consists almost entirely of lean fat-rather than of fat lean-and the same may be said of that bacon. See! how the beef cuts long-ways with the bone-if it be not indeed a sort of sappy gristle. Along the edges of each plate, as it falls over from the knife edge among the gravy-greens, your mouth waters at the fringe of fat, and you look for "the mustard." Of such beef and greens, there are four trenchers, each like a tea-tray; and yet you hope that there is a corpsdu-reserve in the kitchen. Saw you ever any where else, except before a barn-door, where flail or fanners were at work, such a muster of howtowdies? And how rich the rarer roasted among the frequent boiled! As we are Christians-that is au incredible goose-yet still that turkey is not put out of countenance-and "as what seems his head the likeness of a kingly crown has on," he must be no less than the bubbly. Black and brown grouse are not eatabletill they have packed; and these have been shot on the snow out of a cottage window, by a man in his shirt taking vizzy with the "lang gun" by starry moonlight. Yea-pies. Some fruitand some flesh-that veal-and this aipples. Cod's-head and shoulders, twenty miles from the sea, is at all times a luxury-and often has that monster lain like a ship at anchor, off the Dogger-bank-supposed by some to have been a small whale. Potatoes always look well in the crumbling candour of that heapedup mealiness, like a raised pyramid.

As for mashed turnips, for our life, when each is excellent of its kind, we might not decide whether the palm should be awarded to the white or the yellow; but perhaps on your plate, with the butter-mixed bloodiness of steak, cutlet, or mere slice of rump, to a nicety underdone, both are best-a most sympathetic mixture, in which the peculiar taste of each is intensely elicited, while a new flavour, or absolute tertium quid, is impressed upon the palate, which, for the nonce, is not only invigorated, but refined.

The devouring we submit to the imagination. The edible has disappeared like snow after a night's thaw. Not cleaner of all obstruction is the besom-swept transparent board itself, now lying bare in the moonlight, along the lucid rink from tee to tee, beautifully reflecting the frosty stars, than the board-erewhile so genial— round which are laughing, yea guffawing, that glorious congregation of incomparable Curlers. The sentiment of the first resolution of the Old Duddingston Curling Society breathes over all-" Resolved that to be virtuous is to reverence our God, Religion, Laws, and the King; and that we hereby do declare our reverence for, and attachment to the same." Bumper-toast follows bumper-toast in animated succession, and here is the list:

1. The King and the Curlers of Scotland.

2. The Tee-what we all aim at.
3. The Courts of Just-ice.

4. All societies in Scotland formed for

the encouragement of the noble game of Curling.

5. The societies in England, Canada, and elsewhere.

6. Our old friend, John Frost.

7. May we never come short, or prove a hog, when required to guard a friend.

8. May Curlers ever be true-soled; lovers of just-ice; and unbiassed in principle.

9. May we never be biassed by un-justice; nor repel an enemy, by inwicking a friend.

10. Curlers' wives and sweethearts. 11. A bumper to the "Land o' Cakes, and her ain game o' Curling."

12. "Channel-stones, crampets, and besoms so green."

13. Right a-board play.

14. "May Curlers ever meet merry i' the morn, and at night part friends." 15. May Curlers on life's slippery rink Frae cruel rubs be free. 16. Frosty weather, fair play, and festivity.

17. Canny skips and eident players. 18. Happy meetings after Curling. 19. Gleg ice and keen Curlers. 20. May we ne'er lie a hog when we should be at the tee.

21. A steady ee and a sure han'. 22. A han'-han player no wise behin' the ban'.

23. The ice tee before the Chinese. 24. The tee without water. 25. The pillars of the bonspiel,—rivalry and good fellowship.

26. May the blossoms of friendship never be nipt by the frost of contention. 27. May every sport prove as innocent as that which we enjoy on the ice.

28. To every ice-player well equipped. 29. When treacherous biases lead us astray, may we ever meet some friendly in-ring to guide us to the tee.

Are they not a set of noble fellows? They are; and one of the best of them all (in spite of his little peccadilloes against our friend, who will only laugh at them) is the ingenious and honourable author of Curliana, to whose volume we have been mainly indebted for this article.