 to decline the invitation.
    Such are a few traits of Scottish mendicity, designed to throw light on a
Novel in which a character of that description plays a prominent part. We
conclude, that we have vindicated Edie Ochiltree's right to the importance
assigned him; and have shown, that we have known one beggar take a hand at cards
with a person of distinction, and another give dinner parties.
    I know not if it be worth while to observe, that the Antiquary was not so
well received on its first appearance as either of its predecessors, though in
course of time it rose to equal, and, with some readers, superior popularity.
 

                                 Chapter First

 Go call a coach, and let a coach be called,
 And let the man who calleth be the caller;
 And in his calling let him nothing call,
 But Coach! Coach! Coach! O for a coach, ye gods!
                                                           Chrononhotonthologos.
 
It was early on a fine summer's day, near the end of the eighteenth century,
when a young man, of genteel appearance, journeying towards the north-east of
Scotland, provided himself with a ticket in one of those public carriages which
travel between Edinburgh and the Queensferry, at which place, as the name
implies, and as is well known to all my northern readers, there is a
passage-boat for crossing the Firth of Forth. The coach was calculated to carry
six regular passengers, besides such interlopers as the coachman could pick up
by the way, and intrude upon those who were legally in possession. The tickets,
which conferred right to a seat in this vehicle of little ease, were dispensed
by a sharp-looking old dame, with a pair of spectacles on a very thin nose, who
inhabited a »laigh shop,« anglicè, a cellar, opening to the High Street by a
straight and steep stair, at the bottom of which she sold tape, thread, needles,
skeins of worsted, coarse linen cloth, and such feminine gear, to those who had
the courage and skill to descend to the profundity of her dwelling, without
falling headlong themselves, or throwing down any of the numerous articles
which, piled on each side of the descent, indicated the profession of the trader
below.
    The written hand-bill, which, pasted on a projecting board, announced that
the Queensferry Diligence, or Hawes Fly, departed precisely at twelve o'clock on
Tuesday, the fifteenth July 17-, in order to secure for travellers the
opportunity of passing the Firth with the flood-tide, lied on the present
occasion like a bulletin
