admonition which Dr. Franklin tells us a venerable friend bestowed on him against a lofty carriage. With assumed awkwardness, his lordship pulled off his bonnet, making a rustic bow to a young woman, who, with inexpert fingers, was attempting to spin. Her beauty, her attire, and manners assured him she was the distressed fair-one he came to succour in her utmost need. In a short time her father came in, and having welcomed the stranger, commanded Effie to put off her fantastic trappings, and get ready to appear in garments more beseeming the daughter and destined wife of a farmer. The girl could not refrain fellow speeding along crossed his path. His lordship asked if any accident had happened, or if any dangerous illness urged his fleet steps to the doctor's residence. The lad, in broken English, said, he was dispatched on a joyous errand. Farmer Macarthur and all his people and cattle were at a shealing three miles up through the mountains: his daughter had come thither from the Lowlands, after an absence of six years, with a lady who took a fancy to her while but a little girl, and nothing was ever so lovely or so fine as Effie Macarthur; yet she was sad and tearful. Her father wished to make that same day a wedding agreement for her with a rich farmer, his nearest neigh-from weeping: her sobs brought her bour; and the foolish lassie was break-mother from a little pantry, saying, ing her heart for a far-off Sassanach (Anglice Englishman), whom she had promised to marry if her parents gave their consent. The Sassanach would follow her in a few days, and they intended to have a grand public-house in some part of the Lowlands. However, farmer Macarthur had decreed that Effie must give her hand to a man of his own country. Lord D. considered that he might derive more pleasure from interesting himself for the afflicted damsel, than by pursuing the heath-cock, a recreation he could have any day. He sent the gamekeeper on another course with the dogs, and took a zigzag track pointed out by the messenger for whisky to ratify the agreement. By day the cottage of a Highlander is ever open, and all strangers are cordially received. The earl walked sans ceremonie to the shealing, and forgetting to stoop as he passed the lowly entrance, a contusion on his forehead gave a memento, perhaps not less impressive than the it was of no real use to be in such haste; the agreement might be delayed a few days, and surely Effie asked no unreasonable indulgence when she begged that the minister should be employed to inquire John Robinson's character from the Earl of Dunmore, as his lordship knew the young man since childhood. The farmer listened with dogged contempt, as conscious of power to enforce his will-a power he was determined not to forego; but at the mention of Lord D. his stubborn composure kindled into wrath, and darting fiery glances at his wife, he exclaimed, " You silly woman, what business has Lord D. with our concerns?" The wife mildly pleaded, "Your daughter told you her sweetheart was reared in that great lord's house, and only left it two years ago, when his lordship recommended him as butler to the lady, who, at her death, ordered so much money and all her clothes to Effie. Lord D. would not send a bad servant to his own the misery of being tied to a profli cousin." "The lad may be a clever servant, and yet good for nothing in providing for a wife and children." After a pause, the farmer muttered, "Perhaps Effie has reasons for bringing her cause before the earl. We are country bodies to be sure, yet we know what is likely to happen when great lords take notice of pretty giglets." 66 "O my dear father!" cried Effie, "it is killing to hear you speak such words. God forbid that I should wish to see Lord D.! I only beg you will not hurry on this cruel agreement, till you get some one you can believe to ask his lordship about John Robinson." "And why am I to care whether John Robinson is good or bad?" retorted the farmer. "Do you think I will ever allow you to have a public-house far from me, and nothing to call your own except what is within four walls, in place of having cows and calves, goats and kids, sheep and lambs, covering a range of miles, joining my own tenement? Your outlandish John Robinson may take to drinking, and soon leave you a beggar. Many a man, sober enough in his early days, has turned out a drunkard in old age, if he was much in the way of temptation." "All that know John Robinson," replied Effie in timid accents, "will testify his good conduct. I should do him injustice if I did not clear him of blame." gate or spendthrift husband, and had any clear notion of the wretchedness of poverty, you would thankfully take the offer of spending your days with an honest industrious farmer." The old farmer and his circle spoke Gaelic, which Lord D. understood, though he could imperfectly speak the language. To free all parties from restraint, and to learn how he could best interpose for Effie and his protégé, John Robinson, he answered the few sentences addressed to him as if he was ignorant of the Gaelic. The farmer repeated his injunction to Effie to strip off her gaudy dress, and borrow a homespun suit from her sister. In her absence, the helpmate she was doomed to accept was most kindly greeted by the farmer. He was a squat, red-pated, middle-aged man, with none of that open cast of countenance generally pertaining to Highlanders. The old farmer plainly communicated to him Effie's partiality to a young Sassanach, and her reference to Lord D. "Such a reference is not to be regarded," said the suitor. "Lord D. may have his own reasons for wishing her money to go to his favourite; and he may have other views: I would not take his word in such a case." The earl could hardly repress his indignation, and he had no doubt that Effie's money was the most powerful attraction for this sordid wooer: but he must not carry off a prize so much above his deserts. The carroty-pated farmer added some jeering remarks upon Lord D.'s affect "Aye, aye," returned the farmer scornfully, "we are all good and wise till we are much tried; but, poor simple creature, let my gray heading the garb and the popularity of a gain some credit from you while I Highland chieftain; but the old man say, that if you knew for one week sternly interrupted him. "His freaks!" repeated the farmer: I" if you was not in my own house, I would tell you these words are uncivil. Lord D. has no freaks." "You must not speak disrespectfully of the earl under my roof. never saw him; but his bounty saved many shearers from starving when they went south before the harvest was generally ripe, and among these was my sister. He speaks kindly and frankly to the meanest that come in his way, and no distressed creature ever left him without relief." As the old farmer spoke, the younger inquisitively eyed Lord D. and beckoned to his host to follow him out. Before the two farmers reappeared, Effie came in, clad according to the orders of her father. Her mother soon joined her, placed a wheel before her, and was seating herself to similar employment, when Effie said," Mother, I never saw you till now omit to offer a stranger a drink of milk." The old woman went for the milk, and Effie whispered to Lord D. "Poor man, if you are afraid of pursuit, this is no safe place for you." Lord D. thanked her with a clownish bend of his head, and said he feared not to remain. The old farmer and his wife entered. The wife set bread and cheese and milk before the stranger, and the farmer pressed him to take time and eat a hearty meal. Lord D. was never fastidious: he availed himself of the hospitable invitation; and when he declined eating more, the farmer asked how it happened, that he, who neither understood nor spoke Gaelic, came to wear a tartan kilt and plaid. Lord D. indeed wore that garb, but then he knew all that was said, and could convey his own ideas in the language of Highlanders. "I have lived so near Lord D." answered his lordship, "that I am infected by his freaks." "Perhaps I know Lord D. better than you," said his lordship," and he is no better than other folks." "Don't provoke me to say you are worse than other folks," said the farmer, raising his voice; but recollecting he spoke to a stranger under his own roof, he continued in a calmer tone: "Can you tell me any thing of a young man whose father and mother died in a far-off country in Lord D.'s service?" "If you mean John Robinson, I can tell you much to his commendation. His parents left some money, and he has added to the amount: a better behaved lad does not live." Effie's crimsoned cheeks bore witness to her deep feeling while these praises were spoken; but the old farmer changed the subject, asking a variety of questions, to discover the name and abode of his guest. The conversation was broken by the tread of measured footsteps, and a corporal's command of soldiers, headed by Effie's suitor, surrounded Lord D. Effie's complexion changed to deadly pallor, and starting up, she involuntarily uttered, "Oh! do not hurt the unfortunate man!" Lord D. had also risen in surprise, when the corporal roughly accosted him with, " Now we have you, and if you again attempt an escape, we shall stop you with a brace of bullets. Come along!" "I must first know whither and wherefore," said Lord D. "You are so innocent that you cannot guess!" said the suitor: " then you shall be told that, and may be more than you wish to hear, when I ment from La Donna del Lago will, we are sure, be found equally attractive. It contains four or five of the most interesting airs of that opera, so far as their nature seemed most calculated for mere instrumental exhibition; but, in this respect, we wonder the elegant female chorus, “Dinibica Donzella," has not been ad The above remarks, although not immediately applying to the article which gave rise to them, will scarcely be viewed in the light of a digression. The subject lies within our jurisdiction; and as the performances at the King's Theatre are not regularly noticed in our Miscellany, we thought ourselves warranted in taking the present opportunity of speak-mitted. This, and some other good ing a word or two in what we conceived to be the proper time and season: but our principal object in this instance has been a sincere and ardent wish for the preservation and the further advancement of a composer's fame, whose genius is justly appreciated in this country, and has no warmer admirers than ourselves. We feel anxious that his arrival in England should be viewed as an epoch by his future biographer: we are convinced that it only depends upon his will and exertions to return from our shores with increased celebrity, and with rewards adequate to ensure independence to his future career. melodies, however, may possibly have Favourite Airs selected from Rossini's celebrated Opera" La Donna del Lago," arranged as a Divertimento for the Piano-forte, with an (ad lib.) Accompaniment This is the sixth of the grand symfor the Flute, and performed on phonies of Mozart, commencing with the Apollonicon, by John Purkis. an allegro in G minor, followed by Pr. 3s.-(Hodsoll, High-Holborn.) || an andante, §, in Eb, universally adThis divertimento may be consi-mired for its beauty and scientific condered as a continuation, under a dif- struction. Mr. Rimbault's arrangeferent name, of the several books of ment, like all his prior labours of operatic selections published by Mr. this kind, is completely satisfactory, P. under the title of Fantasias, and and by no means intricate. A thesuccessively founded upon the Ma-matic catalogue of his numerous adapgic Flute, Figaro, Tancredi, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, &c. all of which we have in their turn commented upon in terms of deserved approbation. || prise at the extent to which this genThe present collection and arrange-tleman's industrious perseverance has tations of classic orchestral works, on one of the leaves in this book, met our eye, and filled us with sur Whatever opinion the Continent may entertain of the musical taste of the English public in general, Mr. Rossini may be assured, that the bulk of the audience in the King's Theatre consists of persons capable of forming a most correct judgment in musical matters, little swayed by transient musical fashions, strictly impartial, and often fastidious critics. These audiences, he ought to consider, are familiar with every thing classic in music: Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven have for years constituted their almost daily musical fare; and of Rossini they have of late had such abundance, that the least repetition, plagiarism, or reminiscence will not escape unnoticed. Commonplace ideas of the Italian school, hackneyed terminations, cannot be expected to create sensation at the King's Theatre. in it which strongly reminded us of Beethoven's profound strains. The allegro is Rossini all over, and over and over again; for it is full of his mannerisms, and presents many reminiscences from his former works. The latter, we regret to say, is a feature which every successive production of this gentleman exhibits with greater force and frequency, and which has tended to diminish the number of his votaries, and to lessen in some degree the enthusiasm still fondly harboured by those whom his previous works had filled with delight. The author is at this moment in the midst of us: he has been called from the scene of his earlier triumphs and of his more recent failures to a country fully sensible of his merits, and willing to honour them. He is engaged to write new works for our stage: we are anxious for their success. May we be permitted to of- Melody, fresh, original, bloomy fer two words of advice towards the melody, will be the most essential accomplishment of these our sanguine charm by which a composer for that wishes? We are the more induced establishment can expect to fascinate to take this liberty, by the opinion we, his hearers. Next to that, we place and the majority of the public, have the attraction of rich, select, and wellformed of the first opera-not a new entwined harmony, as distant from one it is true-which has been recent- the homely fare we are frequently ly brought out under his own direc- doomed to endure at our national tion. But for this latter circumstance, theatres, as it should be free from Zelmira, we make no doubt, would the eccentricities which form blehave proved a failure: the two or three mishes of the modern school, and pieces of real merit which it presents which have crept into the more rewould not have been deemed an in- cent works of Rossini himself. Noise demnity for the abstruse eccentrici- and clangour of wind instruments, ties, not to say more, the want of fresh brass and ass's skin, such as the opemelody, and the stunning noise of ra of Zelmira is loaded with, will not trumpets, drums, and trombones, enhance or maintain Rossini's fame which disfigure this composition. in this country. These expedients, The overwhelming din of these in-like paint in the other sex, while they struments before and behind the cur- momentarily conceal defects or imtain renders the choruses of thirty perfections, at the same time act as heralds of their existence. or more vocalists scarcely audible! |