CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.

SEVENTY YEARS SINCE.

The last representatives of our grandfather'sgeneration having passed away, there is no reasonwhy the following true stories of an old Scotchhouse should not be made public, for the entertainmentof others besides those members of thefamily to whom only they have hitherto beenknown. I have slightly changed the names ofpersons and places, but not a detail of the storieshas otherwise been altered from the first-handaccounts given us by those who were themselvestheir heroes and heroines.

On a winter's afternoon in the year 1816 threeyoung officers were riding 'within a mile ofEdinboro' toun;' they were pushing on in advanceof their regiment, which was that day marchinginto new quarters, hoping to reach the city intime to choose lodgings for themselves, to whomrooms in barracks had not been allotted. Suddenlya gaunt gipsy woman of the Meg Merriliestype darted out upon them, and laid her detaininghand upon the bridle of Lieutenant T—— (mygrandfather). He tried to shake his rein free,but without effect, and the little cavalcade wasbrought to a halt by her persistence; then addressingthe gentlemen collectively, but keeping hereyes upon my grandfather, she offered to tell theirfortunes. The young men laughed at the suggestion,and the gipsy wife waxed angry. 'Ye'll dolittle good in Edinboro' or elsewhere,' she retortedroughly to the two captains who had declined herservices. 'But for ye' (speaking only to LieutenantT——), 'there's a bonnie bride waiting inthe first house ye enter!'

My grandfather threw her a shilling and gallopedon with his companions, enduring for some timetheir good-natured raillery about the spae-wife'sprediction; but when they reached the city theywere too much engaged in observing the outsidesof the houses which might afford them the desiredlodgings, to think further of the prophecy. In thedim light, one large house with closed shutterslooked as if it were untenanted and likely to suittheir requirements; while a light from a lowerkitchen window shewed that some one wa

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