ing that the passengers should be rendered aware, by seeing this particular cabin, that the countess was lodged in disgraceful captivity, we can easily conceive it was so. But then there is no room to challenge Lord Hailes's explanation. If, on the contrary, we must necessarily receive the phrase in its literal sense, as implying that the Countess of Buchan was put in an open cage or crib, like one of those in which wild beasts are shown, pervious to the eyes of all men, who were to behold her sleeping or waking, at meals and at toilette, and equally accessible to every blast of heavenwe suspect that if such penance was ever inflicted, the very effects of the climate would prevent it from lasting long. We will take a crowned and Gothic steeple well known to Mr Tytler (that of Saint Giles, in Edinburgh), and ask how long any living thing, except, perhaps, a jackdaw, could exist among the knops and pinnacles of the flinty coronet. Unless, however, we back Matthew of Westminster to this extent, there is no difference that we can trace betwixt him and Lord Hailes. Both of them must have known that, as there is even in the lowest depth a deeper still, so every ancient prison contained interior places of confinement, called cages, strongly constructed with bars of wood and iron, to secure turbulent captives, or augment the durance of those to whom it was determined to use severity. Louis XI.'s castle of Loches was furnished with several such cages, of new and terrible construction. There was one, also, in the jail of Edinburgh-the old "Heart of

Mid-Lothian"-which, when that building was pulled down, was purchased by the magistrates of a neighbouring town, and is, perhaps, still in being. The cage of the countess was probably of the same nature, but placed in a conspicuous situation, that the view, not, surely, of her person, but of the cell in which she was immured, might call to frequent remembrance her offence and her punishment. The misapprehension of the technical term seems to have led to the idea that the cell resembled a bird-cage, and was suspended over a wall.

We willingly quit the task of censure for that of praise, and must render the justice to Mr Tytler, that occasionally he has been able to correct errors and supply gaps in his predecessor's Annals. Although he appears to us to have failed in his attempt to diminish the authority due to Lord Hailes in the instances we have alluded to, we think others occur, in which the venerable author, professionally accustomed to give judgment only in accordance to facts fully proved, has been rather sceptical on subjects where, if the historian is to decide at all, he must decide on such materials as tradition affords him. This, sometimes the worst of evidence, is in other cases the best, and it is, in them, as great an error to throw it aside without consideration as it can ever be to rely on it with credulity.

We must add, that the plan and extent of Mr Tytler's history, and the advantage which he possesses in good taste, and a simple, manly, and intelligible strain of writing, enable him to adorn his pages with a great many light yet interesting

touches, which Lord Hailes, being confined to the dry task of composing annals, was compelled to omit. It is by such judicious additions and improvements that modern authors should endeavour to establish a superiority over those who may, indeed, have given us cause of regret, but cannot have intended any offence, when nostra ante nos dixerunt.

Amongst other objects of new and curious interest, we understand that Volume III. of Mr Tytler's history will contain some singular evidence concerning the fate of Richard the Second, who (or some one personating him) appears to have resided in Scotland ten years after the period commonly assigned in the English annals as that of his death.

It is with great pleasure we anticipate a speedy continuation of this work. Pinkerton, whose book is the only modern one treating of the history of Scotland till the reign of Mary, leaves far richer gleanings behind him than the accurate Lord Hailes. An excellent scholar he was, yet deficient in actual local knowledge. He did not recognise, for example, in the "Castle of Cowthele," the baronial fortress of the Somervilles, called Cowdailly, although, we believe, he was educated, if not born, within a few miles of that place. He sought the maps of Pont and Bleau in vain for the parish of Bowden, which any almanack would have pointed out; and, long resident in England and foreign countries, he was singularly inexpert in the Lowland Scottish tongue. Selected by

Gibbon to be his assistant in republishing the old historians of England, he repaid the obligation by imitating the style of the historian of the empire, which, in his hands, became harsh, tumid, and obscure. Besides, although Mr Pinkerton collected many valuable materials from the Paper-office, yet that valuable depositary of original letters is far from exhausted; and the unwearied labours of Mr Deputy-Register Thomson have thrown interesting light on the reigns of the Second and Third Jameses. The immense stores collected by the industrious Chalmers have also been added to the materials for Scottish history, within the last twenty years; we hope, therefore, Mr Tytler, young, ardent, and competent to the task, will not delay to prosecute it with the same spirit which he has hitherto displayed. And so we bid him God's speed upon his journey

"For long, though pleasing, is the way,

And life, alas! allows but an ill winter's day.” '

[Since this article was written, Mr Tytler has published three volumes more, bringing down the History of Scotland to the assassi nation of Cardinal Beaton, in 1545; in regard to that event, his researches in the State Paper-office have set to rest a point of controversy among former historians. (See note, "Tales of a Grandfather," in Volume xxiii. of this series). Mr Tytler is still engaged in his laborious and important undertaking.]

ARTICLE XVII.

PITCAIRN'S CRIMINAL TRIALS.

[The last piece of criticism which came from the pen of Sir Walter Scott was this, on the first six parts of the Collection, entitled " Trials, and other Proceedings, in matters Criminal, before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland; selected from the Records of that Court, and from original Manuscripts preserved in the General Register House, Edinburgh. By ROBERT PITCAIRN, Writer to his Majesty's Signet, F.S.A." This article

was in the Quarterly Review for February 1831. MR PITCAIRN has since completed his work in four quarto volumes, published under the auspices of the BANNATYNE CLUB at Edinburgh, of which SIR WALTER SCOTT was the founder and first President.]

THIS has been called "the age of clubs ;" and certainly the institution of societies which, under no more serious title than that of a festive symposium, devote themselves to the printing of literary works not otherwise likely to find access to the press, will hereafter be numbered among not the least honourable signs of the times. The two Scotch clubs of this class have of late been doing so much and so well, that we venture to introduce a few general