Brought forward......... When this Canal is opened, and the passage rendered cheap, safe, and expeditious, it is clear that the thorough trade will be greatly increased. The greatest part of the Baltic and other east country goods, consisting of hemp, flax, tallow, cheese, butter, &c. with such goods as come from England by the Smacks or otherwise, and now go by Grangemouth westward, will certainly go by it; and, on the other hand, the greatest part of the west country goods, particularly muslins and other cloths, from Paisley, Glasgow, and other ports on the Clyde, destined for England or the Continent. Sugars, rum, coffee, cotton, logwood, &c. will also be sent directly from the bond warehouses of the Clyde to those at Leith. On this it is conceived that 6000 tons each way will be reckoned a moderate addition. 12,000 tons of goods of different descriptions, at 13s. 8d. This particular must certainly be reckoned very moderately stated, when it is a known fact, that, during the four years before mentioned, the article of Sugar alone produced a revenue on the Forth and Clyde Canal averaging £.4950 annually. Boats carrying Passengers and Parcels. 0 0 40,000 Cabin passengers, at 8s. ......................£.16,000 .... PARCELS. It has been computed that the coaches get for carriage of parcels, of different descriptions, £.3952 annually; and it may be fairly supposed that these will go by the Canal to the amount of Deduct expences, one-third,......... 4,500 0 0 2,000 0 0 Deduct for Monkland Canal, one-seventh, 3,571 Total Revenue from Passengers and Parcels, Gross Revenue,...... Deduct for management and maintenance of Canal, 8 6 £.46,492 17 0 £.8,200 0 0 21,428 11 6 .£.76,121 8.6 10,121 8 6 Nett Revenue of Canal, .......£.66,000 0 0 junction with the Monkland Naviga Thus it appears, that, on a very moderate computation, there will be a clear revenue of £.66,000 per annum, for an outlay of £.470,000, that being the amount of Mr Rennie's estimate for constructing the Canal from the Wet-Docks at Leith to a tion. As the article of Passage-boats is one of great importance, both as it regards revenue and public utility, every exertion has been made to obtain full and correct information respect ing it. In the course of these inquiries, it has been ascertained that the number of Passengers on the Forth and Clyde Canal, during the year 1813, was 60,552; and that in 1814 it amounted to 75,210, being an inerease in one year of 14,658. deed, the revenue arising from Passengers on that canal has, since the period of their establishment, six years ago, been actually quadrupled. In From these inquiries, it has likewise been found, that the number of persons travelling in carriages directly between the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, exceeds 40,000 an nually; and when those conveyed by the Canal Coaches are added, it will amount to about 60,000; all of whom, it is perfectly clear, are thorough passengers between the cities already mentioned. It will, therefore, it is hoped, appear a moderate computation, that of those 60,000 thorough. passengers, 40,000 would take the Canal, that is, 20,000 from Edin. burgh, and the same number from Glasgow, annually; and as almost the whole of this description of persons may be set down under the head of Cabin Passengers, the number above sta ted is thus satisfactorily accounted for. With regard to Steerage Passengers, no data could be obtained upon which to calculate with any degree of accuracy. It has, however, usual. ly been found, that the number of this class is about double that of Cabin Passengers; but, as will be seen above, a more moderate computation has been adopted. But, besides thorough passengers, to whom alone any reference has yet been made, it is evident that there must be an immense number of intermediate passengers. The number of people travelling in carriages between Edinburgh, Falkirk, and Stirling, has been computed at about 18,000 annually; that is, 9000 going, and the same number returning, a very considerable proportion of whom would unquestionably use the Canal. And when it is recollected that the Canal itself will run through a very popu lous country, passing, as has been already mentioned, the towns of Kirkliston, Linlithgow, Falkirk, Cumbernauld, and Airdrie; and, on the north side of the Great Canal, those of Kirkintilloch, Kilsyth, Stirling, with all the adjoining country south of the Forth, it cannot admit of a doubt that the number will be realized in its fullest extent, that is, 30,000 annually, as above stated. The utility of these water conveyances, and the encouragement bestowed on them by the public, cannot be better illustrated, than by observing the progressive and constant increase wherever they have been adopted.In Scotland, besides the Forth and Clyde Canal, a very extensive trade of this nature is carried on by Steamboats upon the river Clyde, and as far out the Frith as Campbelltown.It is not quite three years since the first of these boats started; and now there are six constantly plying, and others getting ready. At the commencement of the undertaking, a hundred passengers was reckoned a good company to depart with from Glasgow; whereas, in the present summer, a thousand have been seen to leave that city in one morning.Indeed, when it is considered with what economy, safety, and ease, people will travel by the projected Canal betwixt Edinburgh and Glasgow, no doubt can be entertained that the number of passengers will rather exceed, than fall short of, the computation which is now given. The ex pence of travelling will not exceed one-third of that which is at present incurred in using carriages; and even tradesmen and labourers will find a place in the steerage of a boat more economical than performing the journey on foot. To all classes of people, indeed, the comfort and cheapness of such a mode of travelling would form a great a great inducement. The Origin and Progress of Romance and Minstrelsie. exploits of their unconquered forefathers, in a similar manner. The priest raises the first chaunt of history, which, as he proceeds, is joined by the chiefs, and then by the whole assembly in full chorus *. The ancient inhabitants of these islands, amid their boundless woods and pathless marshes, amused themselves from the fatigues of battle or the chase, in listening to the strains of these consecrated bards, who had been set aside for this important purpose; and the Scalds of sea-beat Lochlin preserved their wildest traFrom the Introduction to the Border Bullads, ditions, and the genealogies of their and Antiquarian History of Dumfries-shire. princes, in a kind of metrical narraTHE first rude attempts among tive, blent with romance and song ‡. barbarous nations, at any thing "If what is called a metrical romance, like a concatenation of ideas in the in the utmost sense of the word, be manner of composition, are their defined a fabulous legend, or a fictitious poetry and their songs. These have recital in verse, blending the probabeen found to be universally the same ble with the marvellous, and conin all countries, from the shivering juring up all the demonry of a superSamoiede who freezes at the pole, to stitious age and country, we may boldthe half-instinctive animal inhabiting ly aver, that this species of composithe blue mountains in the southern tion was not altogether unknown to regions of the world. Measured ca- the Grecians and the Romans: the dence seems the most natural manner Iliad and Odyssey of Homer,-the in which language can be communi- Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius, cated; the personifications of ideas, and Orpheus of Crotona-the Hero the voluble and easy flow of speech, and Leander of Museus-the death to which men are accustomed in the of Adonis, from Bion-the Æneid of infant state of society, give a pre- Virgii-the Metamorphoses of Ovid eminence to this mode of unshackled and the Thebaid of Statius, however composition above all others. The distinguished by the pompous appelwarlike records of the land, the tri- lation of Epic Poems, are, in fact, butes offered up in propitiation of their as perfect metrical romances, as either deities, and the praises of their favour- those of Prince Arthur, or the magnaite mistresses, were usually recited at nimous Charlemagne ||." These, with the great witten a gemotes, or assemblies of the people. These are the basis of their chronicles and their records, and from this source are to be traced the first dawnings of "Romance and Minstrelsie,?? In the boundless regions of the new world, on the banks of the Ohio or the Oonalashka, the savage inhabitants of these pathless desarts preserve the memories of their warlike deeds, and hand down to future ages the glorious mighty mighty monuments of human genius and imagination, are as deeply imbued with the legends and superstitions, with the chivalrous deeds and astonishing prodigies of these times, as the more recent effusions of the British bards. As to the foreign Trouveurs and Romanziere, whilst poetry was accounted a divine effusion, and the bards or minstrels had their stations regularly assigned them in the establishment of princes, they performed the parts of historians in a very accurate manner; tho' embellished and illustrated with a good deal of the marvellous, still they had as much foundation in facts, as to form no unsteady basis for the regular compiler of annals to build his materials upon. French historians inform us that the Romans began to supersede the Latin as a colloquial language in Gaul, about the beginning of the 9th, or latter part of the 8th century. The overwhelming wave of barbarians which invaded, and finally exterminated the greater part of the modern Latins, blended in its progress a multiplicity of tongues, and formed a language, copious, nervous, and highly susceptible of the embellishment of Oriental and Boreal fiction. From this source, as from the nurseries of Gothic and of Scaldic enchantment, sprung the first section of these Romans, pregnant with stories and adventures of giants, dragons, enchanters, and magicians t, and which, for a long series of ages, during the obscurity of Monkish superstition, formed the principal amusement of our warlike ancestors. That our earliest romances, such as Sir Gawen, Sir Lancelot du Lac, Prince Arthur, Alusaunder, and the "San Griale," derived their origin from the Gothic bards and Scalds, will be sufficiently evident from the * Vide Ellis's Int. to his Specimens of early English Romance. +.Vide Percy on Antient Romances, iii. 10, and Mallet's N. Ant. Different coincidence of narration, adventure, and of chivalrous exploits, "even before chivalry became a distinct military order, conferred in the way of investiture, and accompanied with the solemnity of an oath, and other ceremonies *." Chivalry, adorned with all its paraphernalia, had its origin in the feudal institutions and manners of those ages, denominated the "dark ages of Christian Europe," and arrived at its meridian glory during the Crusades, those religious irenzies of the western world. authors have attributed the origin and progress of romance to the following sources: first, to the Arabians; secondly, to the Scandinavians; and lastly, to the Provençals, or inhabitants of Provence. "It seems," says an elegant and judicious critic, "to have been imported into Europe, by a people whose modes of thinking, and habits of invention, were foreign to the country, and at a much earlier period than even the Crusades. It was transplanted from the banks of the Tigris, and the Euphrates, to the cities of Cordova and Toledo, to the shores of the Guadalquiver and the Douro; the splendid abodes of the Abyssinian dynasty, and from thence disseminated over the rest of Europe by means of the Crusades +." In every country, tales in rhyme were usually sung by minstrels to the harp, on nights when "Feasts were high, and wine was free," to rouse the spirit of the chiefs at the recital of the tales of other years. The minstrel was a welcome guest at the table of every potent baron, and seldom or never was a meal served up in his castle without being attended by the hoary-headed veteran. Mr Scott, in his beautiful fiction, entitled the "Fire King," alludes to this ancient custom, when he emphatically exclaims, "Bold * Vide Letters on Chivalrie, &c. + l'ide Warton's Hist. of English Poetry. "Bold knights and fair dames to my harp give an ear, Of love, and of war, and of wonder to hear, And you haply may sigh in the midst of your glee, At the tale of Count Albert and fair Rosalie*." In after ages, the glory of the minstrel seems to have been in its wane, for, instead of being seated in the hall, served with wine, and singing his strains to bold knights and fair dames, we find him wandering on from castle to castle, depending on the casual charity of the noblesse, and paying for his entertainment with a song. A little boy, generally some nursling of misfortune, went along with him, bearing his harp, and beguiling with his prattle the tediousness of his pilgrimage over the inhospitable wilds of his native clime. This custom is finely depicted by that "mighty master of the lyre," in the opening of one of the finest poems in the English language The day was long, the night was cold, But wandering onward, scorn'd and poor, In former times, the bards were a dorned with an ivy crown, a silver crescent upon the right arm, and clad in the livery of the chieftain in whose services they were retained. Vide Tales of Wonder, by M. G. Lewis, 8vo. +Vide Introduction to the Lay of the Last Minstrel, p. 11 and 12. To amuse and drive away the tediousness and ennui of a solitary winter evening, the fool was introduced, who, with his pyebald coat, cap with ears and bells, used to break his gibes them laugh at the antick tricks and and jest upon the company, or make wild contortions into which he threw himself. But that part of his character which seems to have given the greatest entertainment to his spectators was, his tormenting, and finally fighting with the rimer or minstrel appended to the house. The minstrels, or choristers, were musicians so termed, because in these sic was assiduously cultivated as a ages church mu branch of the arts. When James III. kept court at Stirling, a part of the choristers of the chapel royal always attended his majesty to make him In Holland's poem of The merry*. Houlat, the minstrels are solely occupied in singing hymns, accompanied with numerous musical instruments †. "The poets," composers of songs and romances, were generally of the clerical order . The term minstrel was afterwards applied indiscriminately to any musician; but the only strolling poets were the Irish and Highland bards, whose rude manners are depicted by our venerable satirist, Holland, and who are classed in the statutes with "thieves and vagabonds." While James III. so highly favoured the minstrels or musicians, that he permitted them to equal knights or heralds in their apparel, Holland's Irish bard sings a lamentable ullalula, and afterwards fights with two fools, his proper equals and companions . The character of rimer or poet, was as superior to that of minstrel in these days, as the juggler Lindsay, p. 136. + Scottish poems, III. 177. Pinkerton's Dissertation on Hist. § Holland's Poems, Pink. Edit. III. Ibid. 180, 181. was |
