To give for me just twenty shilling.—L. M’K.”
We have no idea who this poetical L. Mackinnon is or was, but it is pretty evident, we think, that both he and the British Linen Company’s Bank note had very excellent opinions of themselves. It was Lady Louisa Stewart, if we rightly recollect, who sent Sir Walter Scott a copy of the following lines, which she discovered on the back of a battered bank note which had come into her possession. It will be observed that they are in all respects immeasurably superior to Mr. L. Mackinnon’s:—
“Farewell, my note, and wheresoe’er ye wend,
Shun gaudy scenes, and be the poor man’s friend;
You’ve left a poor one; go to one as poor,
And drive despair and hunger from his door.”
Let cynics growl and snarl as they list, some people HAVE hearts, and the author of the above lines, be sure, had a right warm and kindly one.
CHAPTER VIII.
A Wet February—A Good Time Coming—Sir Walter Scott—Mr. Gladstone—Death of Sir David Brewster.