EDINBURGH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 705, 22 March 1864, Page 6

EDINBURGH.

(from our own correspondent.) Jan. 25th, 1864. The old year's old age was literally a green one, or rather a richly many-colored one, owing to the mildness of the weather During December Mr M'Nab of the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens gathered the blossoms of 400 different kinds of plants flow- '- ering al fresco] and the gardener at Gor- ~ don Castle, sent to the " Scottish Farmer" —a very interesting paper devoted to agriculture, horticulture, etc, the youngest but by far the best of the kind in Scotland, and one of the best in the kingdom—a lengthy list of roses, japonicßs, hollyhocks, lark-spurs, carnations, etc., etc., which were blossoming in the open air during that month in the grounds entrusted to his care. On the 31st of December a half-ripe strawberry was plucked in a villa garden near1 Edinburgh. About a . month before three fine and fully ripe strawberries were gathered in the same garden. New Year's Eve was a very different night from the stern time it often is. People did not shiver as they gathered round the Tron Church, waiting for the stroke of twelve. To usual, the arrival of the new year was greeted with ringing and cheers, sundry persons wearing chimney-pot hats were bonneted, the pavement was littered with orange-peel, the air was fragrant, or the opposite, with whisky, and hundreds of „_ " first-footers," as soon as the cheers were "**"' over, started on their rounds. As usual again, alas, throughout the day, the streets were thronged with reeling, ranting drunkards—many of them mere boys. The " Modern Athens" does not appear to advantage on popular holidays. Hardly had the New Year come when a glorious frost set in, and great were the gatherings of the skaters and the curlers. All Edinburgh appeared to empty itself on Duddingstone Loch. Its white surface was densely darkened by those who walked and those who slid, by those who darted hither and thither on skates in swallow-like zig-zags, sometimes driving before them in sleighchairs, ladies rosy and befurred ; by those who played at shinty, and by those who made the slopes of Arthur's Seat—crowded with spectators—echo back the musical rumble of the "roaring game." When night fell, torches were lighted, and hurried along like meteors by skaters, anxious to making the most of their chance of indulging in their favorite pastime. As the flambeaux crossed and circled in the darkness, now luridly, anon brilliantly burning, the loch presented a most picturesqne appearance. Some of the most skilful and daring of the skaters by day were ladies, who, as they skimmed over the ice with looped up dresses, made lavish show of legs, which I heard a young boy-swell, trying hard to be a miniature Drundreary, characterise as " pawsoc^tively wavishing." Prince Alfred, who ' lis a very good skater, spent two or three hours a day on the loch during the continuance of the frost. Whilst it lasted, came news which must have nipped like a frost any hopes he may have had that the Crown mi^ht eventually come to him News was flashed down that the Princess of Wale 9 had been suddenly delivered of a fine boy. " Confined of a Prince," was the grammatical and unflunkeyish English of the official bulletin. So suddenly did the little stranger leap into the world at Frog- 1

more, that there was no grand accoucheur or even common nurse to receive him, no flannel to swathe him in. Expresses had to be sent to a country doctor, and a draper's shop in Windsor. The baby's basket and the bassinet were at Marlborongh House. If the tidings of his little nephew's birth gave Prince Alfred any pain, be must have found some comfort in the doleful manner in which Edinburgh welcomed the news. The church bells were set going, and anything more funereal than their tolling it never entered into the cranium of a campanologist to conceive.

A strong wish is very generally felt in Edinburgh that Jthe " Music Bells" of St Giles's should be once more heard.

A death which has caused the tolling of bells in the Highlands, and mourning in every Scottish Masonic Lodge, has occurred since I last wrote. Cancer in the neck has carried off that genuine son of the heather, the Duke of Athole. He was buried in the old ruined Kirk of Blair, in a vault beneath the Athole pew, last Saturday. Minute-guns boomed, the bag-pipes wailed, his faithful Highlanders fired three farewell volleys over his grave.

Another death of interest to Scotsmen has taken place. Mr. Charles M'lntosh, the landscape gardener and horticulturist, is gone. The Queen and Prince Albert liked him much. The King of the Belgians also had a high, opinion of him. He was for a time the King's gardener, both at Claremont and in Brussels. He afterwards managed the ducal gardens at Dalkeith. He had an alphabet of Fellowships after his name, and had edited the horticultural department of the "Scottish Farmer" from its commencement.

In Glasgow and in Edinburgh, at present, the sea-sodden stock of the ill-fated Grasmere —wrecked when bound to New Zealand—is being sold off. Her registered burden, I see, was between four and five hundred tons. From the quantity of calico, &c, that is advertised as having formed part of her cargo, it might, however, be supposed that she was a3 big as the Great Eastern. The master has been deprived of his certificate for six months, unfairly, I think. He had had no sleep for two days and a night. At the time he left the ship in the second mate's hands, and went below for a nap, the weather was fine. The chief mate had the the deck when the ship struck, and had taken the full responsibility of her steering upon himself by altering her course without consulting the captain. I send you the following statistics of emigration from the Clyde last year:—-2700 for New Zealand; 500 for Queensland; 20 for Melbourne; 20 for Geelong; 15 for Port Natal; 3 for Adelaide; 3500 for Canada; 320 for Portland and New York; 10 for Halifax; 45 for South America; 40 for Denierara; 20 for Trinidad; 12 for Jamaica; 25 for Calcutta; 12 for. Bombay; 34 for other parts of the East Indies, and 40 for various other ports. Total 7410 passengers. Mr Youl has at last got his "assisted emigrants," the salmon ova, safely packed in charcoal, moss, and ice. I hope they will arrive safe. Some of them, I understand, are intended for your part of the world. Apropos of salmon, some of my readers, I have no doubt, have fished in the Whitadder—a short time ago it was full of dead or dying salmon. The pigs in the neighborhood had salmon ad libitum at every meal. More profitable fish have been swarming on the Caithness coast —splendid herrings, cod, halibuts and haddocks. More than a cran per net of herrings was the average " take" one day. To revert to New Zealand matters. Great interest throughout Great Britain, but especially in Scotland, is taken in the progress of the war. Messrs Johnston, of Edinburgh, the well-known chartographers, have published a large map to enable us to follow the movements of the forces. Dr Hector's explorations have also caused a good deal of excitement here. Edinburgh is specially proud of the Doctor, because he is an Edinburgh man. A rumor has just reached England that Dr Livingstone has been murdered. I sincerely hope that it may turn out to be unfounded. Are Scotch superstititions as well as Scotch sense imported into Otago ? I clip from a country paper the following curious paragraph ; —" The funeral of a tailor named M'Culloch, which took place on Tuesday, in Scone churchyard, was attended with circumstances of a somewhat unusual nature in this enlightened nineteenth century. It is pretty generally believed that M'Culloch committed suicide; and it seems that an old superstition prevails in Scone to the effect that the body of a,suicide should not be admitted to the burying ground by the sate, but ought to be lifted over the wall. The reason for this circuitous mode of ingress is said to be that were the body a! lowed to be carried through the gate, the fii ;i". bride " kirked" thereafter would commit uicide within a short period after her mnrriage; and that the first child taken to the church to be christened is "as sure a^ fate" bounjd to make away with its own life b2fore it reaches the age of eight years. Impressed with these ideas, the gudewive* of Scone mustered in strong force on Tuesday, and endeavored, first by persuasion and ultimately by threats to prevent the coffin, containing M'Culloch's remains, from being carried through the gate of the churchyard. We even hear it rumored that Mr Justice, the undertaker, was threatened with a ducking in the burn because he insisted on having the corpse taken to the churchyard by the usual entrance. After a good deal of wrangling, the coffin was allowed to pass; but such is the strong feeling manifested, that we should not be astonished to hear that the next couple for " kirking," and the next child for christening, will pass over the wall surrounding the church, rather than lay themselves open to the untimely fate sure to follow their passing through the gate after the body of a suicide. Who will say that the days of superstition have passed away ?

From another country paper I cut another curiosity :—"On Sunday last, the minister of a large congregation in Dundee was interrupted in the course of his forenoon sermon by the repeated coughing of his auditors. Pausing in the midst of his observations, he addressed his congregation to the following effect:- ' You go about the streets at the New Year time—you get drunk, and get cold, then you come here and cough, cough like a park of artillery. I think I must give you a vacation of six weeks, that you may have time to get sober, and to regain your health again.' He thereafter went on with his discourse, which was concluded amid much greater quiet than it had been hegun; but just as the congregation was dismissing, an indignant seatholder in the gallery rose up and loudly declared that the remarks of the pastor, were nothing less than an insult to the whole congregation."

On this text, the " London Morning Herald" preached the following edifying

sermon. —" We recommend this comical story to the serious attention of those Dissenters who complain of the coldness and formality of a Church of England congregation. Here is zeal enough in all conscience—the zeal of a preacher who cannot bear an accidental interruption, and the zeal of a devotee who cannot refrain from giving the preacher a " bit of his mind." But where is the greater amount of veneration to be found? Among the cold formalists to whom a scene of this sort in a place of worship would be absolutely repulsive; or among the zealous with whom it is possible for the preacher to abuse the congregation and the congregation to retort on the preacher, with no better ground for the indecorum than the prevalence of colds in the depth of a Scotch winter. A Mr Bowler, late captain and adjutant of the Donegal Militia, has lately been swindling distinguished personages wholesale—Ministers of the Crown, Archbishops, &c, &c, out of cash, sympathy, and signatures to a memorial in his favor to the Duke of Cambridge. One of the dupes was(j the Marquis of Tweeddale. He, however, found out that he had been deceived, and the noble captain was clapt into a Scottish gaol. Thence he was removed in the custody of English police to Shropshire, one of the many places in which he had carried on his little game, by which he gained good company and five or six hundred a year. The Marquis, fearing that his name might again be made use of to mislead, ordered the Captain to delete it from his memorial. The captain refused to do so, and his lordship had actually to apply to the Court of Session to free him from the disagreeable post of patron of an obtainer of money under false pretences. From such a story I can pass without much abruptness to Asylums for the Blind. That in poor Edinburgh is flourishing, but wealthy Glasgow only contributes to the support of hers—a contemptible L3OO a year. Never, however, could the district of the Clyde afford to be more liberal than at present. The demand for pig iron is prodigious; the shipbuilders have more orders than they can execute, and fortunes are made in a day by the sale of steamers for the running of the American blockade. English merchants keep their eyes on the performances of Clyde boats, and the swiftest are snapt up at prices double, treble, quadruple, their intrinsic value.