Mrs.Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn
Dear Miss Mally--You will have heard, by the peppers, of the gret hobbleshow heer aboot the queen's coming over contrary to the will of the nation; and, that the king and parlement are so angry with her, that they are going to put her away by giving to her a bill of divorce.The Doctor, who has been searchin the Scriptures on the okashon, says this is not in their poor, although she was found guilty of the fact; but I tell him, that as the king and parlement of old took upon them to change our religion, I do not see how they will be hampered now by the word of God.
You may well wonder that I have no ritten to you about the king, and what he is like, but we have never got a sight of him at all, whilk is a gret shame, paying so dear as we do for a king, who shurely should be a publik man.But, we have seen her majesty, who stays not far from our house heer in Baker Street, in dry lodgings, which, I am creditably informed, she is obligated to pay for by the week, for nobody will trust her; so you see what it is, Miss Mally, to have a light character.Poor woman, they say she might have been going from door to door, with a staff and a meal pock, but for ane Mr.Wood, who is a baillie of London, that has ta'en her by the hand.She's a woman advanced in life, with a short neck, and a pentit face; housomever, that, I suppose, she canno help, being a queen, and obligated to set the fashons to the court, where it is necessar to hide their faces with pent, our Andrew says, that their looks may not betray them-- there being no shurer thing than a false- hearted courtier.
But what concerns me the most, in all this, is, that there will be no coronashon till the queen is put out of the way--and nobody can take upon them to say when that will be, as the law is so dootful and endless--which I am verra sorry for, as it was my intent to rite Miss Nanny Eydent a true account of the coronashon, in case there had been any partiklars that might be servisable to her in her bisness.
The Doctor and me, by ourselves, since we have been settlt, go about at our convenience, and have seen far mae farlies than baith Andrew and Rachel, with all the acquaintance they have forgathert with--but you noold heeds canno be expectit on young shouthers, and they have not had the experience of the world that we have had.
The lamps in the streets here are lighted with gauze, and not with crusies, like those that have lately been put up in your toun; and it is brought in pips aneath the ground from the manufactors, which the Doctor and me have been to see--an awful place--and they say as fey to a spark as poother, which made us glad to get out o't when we heard so;--and we have been to see a brew-house, where they mak the London porter, but it is a sight not to be told.In it we saw a barrel, whilk the Doctor said was by gauging bigger than the Irvine muckle kirk, and a masking fat, like a barn for mugnited.But all thae were as nothing to a curiosity of a steam- ingine, that minches minch collops as natural as life--and stuffs the sosogees itself, in a manner past the poor of nature to consiv.They have, to be shure, in London, many things to help work--for in our kitchen there is a smoking-jack to roast the meat, that gangs of its oun free will, and the brisker the fire, the faster it runs; but a potatoe-beetle is not to be had within the four walls of London, which is a great want in a house; Mrs.Argent never hard of sic a thing.
