up the measure of the ambition of a bare Scotch lad, proved far short of the defires of an eminent foreign merchant. He imperceptibly became " in easy circumstances, well in the "world, of great credit, a man to be relied "on, and to be advised with, and even one " fuperior to all shocks, calls, and runs."

While engaged in making his fortune, he thought it needless to inquire after his poor relations, whom he could not affist; and, after he had made his fortune, he thought it equally needless, as he was to fee them so soon in Scotland. Yet, a multitude of unforeseen obstacles retarded his return: Some new mortgage was to be fettled, some companyconcerns to be wound up, or some bottomryaccount to be adjusted; and thus, year glided along after year, till at length, death fuprised him at the age of three score and ten.

Bufied in making money, he had never bestowed a thought on providing an heir to it: that he left to the impartial determination of the laws of his country; and, dying intestate, he was succeeded by his nephew, Rowland Flint.

This gentleman, on his becoming rich, difcovered himself to be eminently skilled in the science

science of law, the study, as he boafted, of his earlier years; and this knowledge engaged him in three or four law-fuits, which the court uniformly determined against him, with costs.

But of every other science he honestly avowed his want of knowledge; and he did not even pretend to understand painting or politics; but he had a mighty veneration for literature and its professors, and he was refolved to make his fon a great scholar, although it should stand him in ten thousand pounds Sterling.

My pupil is in his fifteenth year. They had taken him from school before it was difcovered that his proficiency in literature did not qualify him for college; and it became my talk to bring him forward, that is, to teach him what he ought to have known already. The youth is of a docile disposition, and of moderate talents; his memory good, and his application such as is generally to be found among those who, having no particular incentives to study, perform their tasks merely as tafks.

I have little to say concerning his mother: her mind was wholly absorbed in the contemplation

templation of her husband's riches, and in the

Baron

care of her fon's health and her own. Bielfield, an eminent German author, observes, that, in our island, there is a disease called le catch-cold, of which the natives are exceedingly apprehenfive. Mrs Flint lived under the perpetual terror of that diseasc.

Being thus rendered incapable of the active duties of house-keeping, she committed them to her brother, Captain Winterbottom, who, as he was wont to say, "could bear a hand at "any thing." But his chief excellence lay in the conduct of the stew-pan and the nation. He had long commanded a vessel in the Baltic trade; and it having been once employed as a transport in the service of government, he affected to wear a cockade, and wished to have it understood that he belonged to the navy. The captain had dealt occafionally in boroughpolitics, belonged to several respectable clubs in London, and was one of the original members of the Robin-Hood society.

The last of the family that I shall mention is Miss Juliana Winterbottom, a maiden sister of Mrs Flint. Her original name was Judith;

but, when she arrived at the years of difcreVOL. III. tion,

S

tion, the changed it to Juliana, as being more

genteel.

li

Many years ago Lady was advised to pass a winter at Nice, for recovery of her health, worn out by the vigils and diffipation of a London winter; and the easily prevailed on Miss Juliana to go as her companion. The heat of the climate, and the cold blasts from the Alps, foon completed what the corrupted air of good company, and the damps from the Thames, had begun, and Lady ved not to re-fee her British physicians. ...Mifs Juliana, on her return home, paffed by the castle of Fernay, and got a peep of M. de Voltaire, in his furred cap and night-gown. At Paris, the chanced to be in company with Count Buffon for half an hour; and the actually purchased a volume of music written by the great Rouffeau himself. Having thus become acquainted with the foreign literati, she commenced a fort of literata in her own perfon. She frequently advances those opinions in history, morals, and physics, which, as the imagines, are to be found in the writings of the French philofophers. But, whether through the habits of education, or through confcious ignorance, it must be confeffed, that

fhe

she dogmatizes with diffidence, and is a very stammerer in infidelity.

Having feen Paris, and having picked up a good many French words in the course of her travels, the thinks that she is authorised, and, in some fort, obliged to speak French. Nothing can be more grotesque than her travelled language. When she left Scotland, "her "speech," to use a phrase of Lord Bacon, "was in the full dialect of her nation." At Nice the converfed with English and Irish and, by imitating the language of each, she has, in her pronunciation, completed the union of the three kingdoms. But still her own country language predominates; for, during her refidence abroad, she had an opportunity of preferving, and even of improving it, by daily conferences with the houfe-maid, who was born and educated in the county of Banff.

In pronouncing French, she blends the tone of all those dialects: and her phraseology is as fingular as her pronunciation; for the faithfully translates every word from her own mother-tongue. An example of this presents itself, which I shall never forget. One day, addreffing her discourse to me, she said, "Je