finally arrived at the burial-place of the Singleside family. This
was a square enclosure in the Greyfriars churchyard, guarded on
one side by a veteran angel without a nose, and having only one
wing, who had the merit of having maintained his post for a
century, while his comrade cherub, who had stood sentinel on the
corresponding pedestal, lay a broken trunk among the hemlock,
burdock, and nettles which grew in gigantic luxuriance around the
walls of the mausoleum. A moss-grown and broken inscription
informed the reader that in the year 1650 Captain Andrew Bertram,
first of Singleside, descended of the very ancient and honourable
house of Ellangowan, had caused this monument to be erected for
himself and his descendants. A reasonable number of scythes and
hour-glasses, and death's heads and cross-bones, garnished the
following sprig of sepulchral poetry to the memory of the founder
of the mausoleum:--

Nathaniel's heart, Bezaleel's hand
If ever any had,
These boldly do I say had he,
Who lieth in this bed.

Here, then, amid the deep black fat loam into which her ancestors
were now resolved, they deposited the body of Mrs. Margaret
Bertram; and, like soldiers returning from a military funeral, the
nearest relations who might be interested in the settlements of
the lady urged the dog-cattle of the hackney coaches to all the
speed of which they were capable, in order to put an end to
farther suspense on that interesting topic.