Glimpses of Peebles. By the Rev. Alexander Williamson. (George Lewis
and Co., Selkirk.)—This does not profess to be an exhaustive history of one of the most interesting of the smaller Scotch country towns, which, after having been celebrated chiefly as a sleepy hollow, has now become the centre of considerable manufacturing activity. On the contrary, the object of the author has been, as he says, "to preserve notices of local events apt to be forgotten, and of humble as well as con- spicuous individuals once well known, but whose names are not familiar to the present generation." Mr. Williamson has undoubtedly attained his object, and has produced a delight- ful rambling—but not too scrambling —volume of studies, re- miniscences, and anecdotes, which will be found useful even by readers who are familiar with more formal histories of the burgh like that published by the late Dr. William Chambers. As was perhaps to be expected, there is a great deal of ecclesiastical information—the history of " settlements " in Peebles and of the Ministers who were "settled "—in a book which deals mainly with a period subsequent to 1760—at least two of Scott's (and Scotland's) most interesting characters figure in Mr. Williamson's pages. Andrew Gemmell, the original of Edie Ochiltree, and " Bow'd Davie of the Wudhus "—his real name was Ritchie—who was the model of the Black Dwarf. Gemmell carried a meal-pock, and "when a recruiting company of soldiers happened to be in the town during his visit, he would hold up his pock in the sight of the strapping young men tempted to listen to the persuasive sergeant, who, in splendid uniform, harangued them in glowing language, and cry out Aye, Aye, lads, here's the end o't.' " The Black Dwarf, to whom justice has also been done by Dr. John Brown and the late Professor Veitch—" his head was very large, his hair shaggy, his feet twisted, his countenance coarse and stern, his legs very short, and his body massive and ponderous" —i§ very well sketched. It is curious to read that he was an extensive reader of poetry, such as Shenstone's "Pastorals," Allan and Ramsay, "Paradise Lost." while, according to Professor Veitch, he hated Burns. Mr. Williamson tells some curious stories of the "Resurrectionists "—as the men were styled who took bodies out of churchyards to sell them to anatomists. Enough has been said to show that Mr. Williamson's book, which, by the way, is full of good things, is of the sort that will interest English as well as Scotch readers. It is well written and very prettily illustrated.
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