338 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
with laughter, with one solitary exception. Who the stoical individual was
who did not share the general mirth may be guessed, when we mention that
the giver of the feast, after an unsuccessful attempt to affect indifference, and
unable longer to contain his wrath, at last, with much bitterness ejaculated-
“ Very amusing, Mr. Robert-very amusing, truly : ye’re a clever lad-very
clever; but just let me tell you-that’s no the way io &se at the bar/”
He had entered, in latter
life, into marriage with a servant girl of the name of Russell, by whom, however,
he had no issue. Although a woman of rather plain appearance, and destitute
of fortune, she nevertheless, after his lordship’s death, obtained for a second
husband a gentleman of property in the West Indies, where she died in
1818.
Lord Cullen died on the 28th November 1810.
No. CCLXXXIII.
THE EDINBURGH FISH-WOMEN.
THE artist has not favoured us with the name of the ‘‘ OYSTER LASS ” whom
this figure represents. The omission is probably a matter of no great moment,
as the characteristics of individuals of her class are usually pretty much the same.
Wovdsworth‘s description of the “ Calais Fish-women ”-
“Withered, grotesque-immeasurably old,
And shrill and fierce in accent ”-
will not apply to the goodly fish-dames of Modern Athens. Stout, clean, and
blooming, if they are not the most handsome or comely of Eve’s daughters,
they are at least the most perfect pictures of robust and vigorous health ; and
not a few of them, under the pea-jacket and superabundance of petticoat with
which they load themselves, conceal a symmetry of form that might excite the
envy of a Duchess. Their cry,
‘‘ Wha’ll 0’ caller ou !” echoing through the spacious sheets of the New Town,
though not easily understood, especially by our southern visitors, has a fulness
of sound by no means unpleasant to the ear.
In some of the late numbers of “ Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal,” the character
and habits of the fish-women form the substance of one or two interesting
articles.
Neither are they “ shrill and fierce in accent.”
We quote the writer’s description of their dress :-
‘‘A cap of cotton or linen, surmounted by a stout napkin tied below the chin, composes the
investiture of the head ; the more showy structures wherewith other females are adorned being
inadmissible from the broad belt which supports the “ creel,” that is, fish-basket, crossing the
forehead. A sort of woollen pea-jacket, of vast amplitude of skirt, conceals the upper part of
the person, relieved at the throat by a liberal display of handkerchief. The under part of the