(_To the Editor_.)


Without intending to be angry, permit me to inform your well-meaning
correspondent, _M.L.B_. that his observations on the inhabitants of
"Auld Reekie," are something like the subject of his communication
"Shavings," _rather_ superficial.

Improvidence forms no feature in the Scottish character; but your
flying tourist charges "the gude folk o' Embro'" with monstrous
extravagance in making bonfires of their carpenters' chips; and
proceeds to reflect in the true spirit of civilization how much better
it would have been if the builders' chips had been used in lighting
household fires, to the obviously great saving of bundle-wood, than to
have thus wantonly forced them to waste their gases on the desert air.
But your traveller forgot that in countries which abound in wheat, rye
is seldom eaten; and that on the same principle, in Scotland, where
coal and peat are abundant, the "natives," like the ancient Vestals,
never allow their fires to go out, but keep them burning through the
whole night. The business of the "gude man" is, immediately before
going to bed, to load the fire with coals, and crown the supply with
a "canny passack o' turf," which keeps the whole in a state of gentle
combustion; when, in the morning a sturdy thrust from the poker,
produces an instantaneous blaze. But, unfortunately, should any
untoward "o'er-night clishmaclaver" occasion the neglect of this duty,
and the fire be left, like envy, to feed upon its own vitals, a remedy
is at hand in the shape of a pan "o' live coals" from some more
provident neighbour, resident in an upper or lower "flat;" and thus
without bundle-wood or "shavings," is the mischief cured.