A TRAVELLER'S TALES.

TWO long driving tours made in 1815 and 1816 by James Cobb, then secretary to the Honourable East India Company, form. the subject of a stout volume of manuscript letters which has come into my possession. As Cobb, who addressed most of the letters to his brother in London, was an observant and intelligent man of the world who knew almost every one worth knowing in his day, a few notes about some of his experiences while on the road, at country inns, or in friends' houses may be of interest to readers of the Spectator. Travelling in those times was neither easy nor in- expensive. When he was but three days from London, on his first tour, he had occasion to complain that the road between Buckingham and Towcester had cost him one of the springs of his carriage; and a few weeks later, writing from Capel

Curig, he declares the local highways to be unsafe, in spite of the enormous turnpike charges. It is twenty-two miles from Tan-y-Bwlch to Capel Curig. The tolls on that short stretch of road amounted in the aggregate to no less than 18s. 8d. Towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars the price of wheat mounted to upwards of 126s. a quarter, nearly five times its present price. The farmers in consequence throve amazingly; so much so, indeed, that, as Cobb was informed at Daventry, the whole countryside regretted the fall of the Emperor and the termination of hostilities, many a farmer asserting that it would have paid him well to subscribe money with the object of keeping Bonaparte in power.

At Lichfield, Cobb, who had known Dr. Johnson, made a pilgrimage to the house where that hero was born, and also inspected a willow tree which had been planted by the Doctor, and which even then was believed to be the largest in England. The trunk had a girth of more than twenty-one feet. While staying at Chester he went over to Eaton Hall, which was then but just finished. He also saw the Flintshire Militia at drill, and noted that the Captains and other com- missioned officers of that corps knew so little about their work that, had not the assistance of the sergeants been at hand, the regiment could not have been manceuvred at all.

Chirk Castle interested Cobb greatly; and he tells a curious story of a lady, a sister of Owen Tudor, whose picture, I believe, still hangs there. This lady, like Henry VIII., was greatly given to marrying, and did not die until she had been led seven times to the altar. When she was following her fourth husband to the grave, the gentleman behind whom she

rode on horseback ventured to urge his suit. "Unhappily," said the dame, "thou art too late, seeing that I am plighted

already; yet do not lose Heart, for, should it fall out that I have again to perform this melancholy Office, I will bear thee in Mind."

At Llamwst the landlord of the inn gave a good imitation of the famous Henry Grattan's peculiarities ; and upon being asked what he knew of Grattan, explained that the Irish patriot had been for two months in the house during the height of the Rebellion of 1798. That period of Grattan's life has always been one of obscurity, it being the view of some that the great Irishman deliberately effaced himself for the time, so as to be able, in case of the failure of the rising, to prove that he had had nothing to do with it, and in the event of its success, to demonstrate that he had not taken the unpopular side, and that he was still worthy to fill the first place in the new Republic. It is not necessary to believe that Grattan was guilty of any such duplicity. He was in ill health; he had been obliged temporarily to withdraw from Parliamentary life ; and doubtless he went to Llanrwst in search of quiet and rest.

In Wales Cobb noticed what he took to be an ingenious device for evading the tax on wheeled carriages. It consisted of a framework like the shafts of a one-horse chaise, joined together by two or three traverse-boards. The rear ends of the shafts were shod and rounded, and rested upon the ground. The driver sat immediately behind his horse upon the traverse. boards, whence, if he liked, he could step forward and mount, without first descending to the ground. This reminds me of another evasion, or partial evasion, of a, tax practised in London at about the same date. There was a tax on bricks; but it would appear that the size of the bricks was not speci- fied. The result was that builders used bricks of huge proportions. The lower walls of the cellars of some of the houses on the south side of Brunswick Square are constructed of these larger bricks. The upper walls, built, I understand, after the tax had been taken off, are of bricks of ordinary dimensions.

At Leamington the traveller saw 17te Merchant of Venice well acted at the theatre ; and at the Assembly Rooms he enjoyed the performance of a conjurer, who was also a ventriloquist. The programmes of both performances are bound up with the letters ; and the programme of the con- jurer, a man named Charles, is embellished with the following footnote :— " Mr. Charles, the first Ventriloquist in England, being stopped by two Footpads between Bristol and Bath, saved himself from being robbed (through this most wonderful Power) in letting appear Voices from beside the Road: the Fellows, thinking they heard the Voices of some Police Officers, went off as speedily as possible.—See Bath and Cheyenhatn Gazette, Nov. 16, 1814."

At Warwick there is, or was, a house reputed to have been at one time the residence of Geoffrey Chaucer. Cobb heard. about its existence, and happened to inquire concerning it from a woman who lived exactly opposite. "There's a many questions me," said she, "about this Chaucer. I suppose, Sir, that he was a very particular man, now," The second tour was to Scotland. Cobb "did" the Trossachs with a Scots general officer, who, a, propos of the fact that snow was visible on the summit of Ben Ledi, told him that in some parts of Scotland lands were held by "blanche tenure," the " service " of the tenant being to present his lord with a snowball in July or August. This is not the usual explana- tion of "blanche tenure," or "blanch-holding," which, I believe, is commonly understood to be tenure in return for the annual payment of one of the smallest current silver coins. It would be interesting to know whether the alleged snow tenure was a fact, or only a figment of the Scots general's ingenious imagination.

The mourning fashions in Edinburgh astonished the Southerner, "I saw," he writes, "with some Surprise Men walking in the Streets, and conversing very cheerfully, who seemed to be overladen with the Trappings and Signs of Woe, Hatbands flowing down their Backs, and Weepers at their Sleeves." Robert Chambers does not mention this fashion in his "Traditions of Edinburgh" Cobb also witnessed at Glasgow the home-bringing of a Highland bride in the old style, a style then almost extinct. It was the custom, after the marriage, for the friends of the newly wedded pair to form a mounted cavalcade, and to escort husband and wife to the latter's new abode. On the particular occasion in question nearly every horseman had a woman behind him, and the rear of the procession was formed of all sorts of carts and carriages, followed by a mob of shouting children.

At Edinburgh, which Cobb made his headquarters for some weeks, he visited the Courts of Justice, and both saw and heard several of the most eminent pleaders at the Scots Bar, including "Mr. Jeffrey, the man so well known as hhe Writer in the Edinburgh Review." Jeffrey struck his listener as being a most extraordinarily eloquent orator, as well as a natural humourist. "I was particularly impressed," adds the writer, "with the gentlemanlike Intercourse which subsisted between the Bench and the Bar; and I could not help observing to my Cicerone that the Business of the Scots Courts seemed to me to be settled in the Course of friendly Conversation between Judge and Counsel." Walter Scott, sitting as Clerk of Ses- sion, was pointed out to the Englishman, who could find in his countenance "no Indication of the Genius displayed in his Writings."

On the way between Glasgow and Dumbarton Cobb passed "the Steam Boat going to Glasgow, which carries Passengers fourteen Miles in two Hours for two Shillings apiece, and which, the Innkeepers say, cuts up the Road Travelling."

On an island near the Kenmore end of Loch Tay are the ruins of a nunnery which was built by Alexander L, who gave to the family of the Earls of Breadalbane a charter conveying the right of catching fish in the lake the whole year through, the only condition being that the nuns should be supplied regularly from the take. The charter survived the nunnery, and, according to the traveller, it had been held to justify the catching and selling at any time of certain fish which even then had their legal close seasons. That, however, was not the most interesting discovery which he made at Kenmore. He ascertained that all the older boys in the village school were fair classical scholars ; and Lord Breadalbane's gardener pointed out several under-gardeners who were not only good Latinists, but also good Grecians, adding: "They are as useful and as humble as if they possessed no such Advantages." The Southerner had been nearly a month in Scotland ere he saw a woman of the poorer class in shoes and stockings.

• He spent a very enjoyable time with the Duke and Duchess of Athole at Dunkeld. On one occasion the Duke's piper was told off to attend upon him. He was a fine fellow in full Highland dress, with richly laced vest, and a black plume in his bonnet. But he had no pipes. After repressing his curiosity for some time, Cobb appears to have asked the Duke where the xuan'A: pipes were. _ "1y piper," was the

• reply, "is considered to be a Gentleman; and, as such, he

does not carry his Pipes about with him. He bas a Servant who performs that Office for him." The piper played a pibroch on the terrace before dinner. Cobb wished then that he had shown less interest in the matter of the pipes. "Doubtless," he writes, "it is my Ignorance that induces me to believe that the Pibroch is the most barbarous unmeaning Abuse of Sounds that was ever denominated Music."

The birth of a son and heir to the Duke of Roxburghe while Cobb was in Scotland in July, 1816, delighted the latter immensely, the secret being that the Duke, who was very old, and who, though he had married twice, was still childless, had been greatly depressed when Cobb had visited him at Floors Castle a few weeks earlier. To cheer him the Englishman had offered to bet that it would be a boy; and the despondent old Duke had taken the bet. Thus the birth of the son and heir not only put a certain number of guineas into the traveller's pocket, but also drove away his friend's gloom. The father was then upwards of eighty. The son succeeded him as sixth Duke, but not until 1823.

At that time whisky smuggling was carried on in the most unabashed manner in the Highlands. Sir Alexander Mackenzie told Cobb of the existence near Loch Lomond of an organised band of armed smugglers who defied the Excise authorities ; and at Kenmore Cobb himself saw in open day the smugglers unloading their carts with as much composure as they could have displayed had they been brewers' men unloading a dray in front of a London inn.

The endorsements on the numerous letters written during these tours show the heavy rates of postage which had to be paid for them. The charges seem tc have been very irregular. A letter of three sheets from Berkhamstead to London cost 2s. 3d., while one of the same size from Dunkeld cost only 3s. 6d. As for a double letter from Congleton, it appears to have been assessed at no more than is. 8d. But some of the letters may have contained enclosures which are not pre- served. Others probably included some interesting pro- vincial playbills which are bound up with the volume, for Cobb, who was himself a dramatist in a small way, and a renter of Drury Lane, was an incorrigible theatre-goer. How he could have found time to write BO much, and to write it always with pen and ink, during the hurry and fatigue of almost continuous travel by road, is a problem which, I fear, the indifferent correspondents of the present generation are not competent to solve. He appears to have written at least one sheet to his brother every day during his absence; and in addition he had a large business correspondence with his directors and assistants at the East India House.

W. LAIRD °LOWE&