The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-09 00:00:00

THE CROPS.

EARLY HARVEST.—On Friday, the 27th ultimo, a field of
ripe barley was cut down by Mr. John Gray, at Elgin Haugh,
near Dalkeith.

FIFESHIRE.-A gentleman who has had occasion to travel a
good deal throughout the county, has favoured us with the
following remarks regarding the crops in Fife :—The corn
crops, upon the whole, look tolerably fair, rather earlier than
usual. Wheat is certainly small in the ear, and late sown
barley on hard lands has brairded unevenly, and will show an
unequal sample; but so much depends upon the weather that we
really do not feel ourselves warranted in giving our opinion
thus early. Of the potatoe crop we can speak with
more certainty ; inasmuch as we know. that in many parts of
Fife, particularly about the eastern district, fully a third of this
valuable esculent has never brairded at all; and even where it
has got this length, it is in many instances so weakly, that we
fear it will not come to much account. Turnips have brairded
well, and promise an abundant crop with seasonable weather.
Beans and pease that were a very short time ago thought past
recovery, from the long drought, have recovered amazingly,
and now promise a fair return, though we cannot help remark-
ing a short breadth sown of this crop, as also of oats.—Fife-
shire Journal.

STATE OF THE CROPS IN CARRICK.-FOr several months
the weather has been most favourable for every thing con-
nected with agriculture. Seedtime and spring have been
equally favoured with a due admixture of drought and mois-
ture, and the genial heat which we now enjoy is producing a
rapid and luxuriant vegetation. With the exception of pota-
toes, which, as in other parts, have partially failed from some
mysterious defect in the seed, the various crops promise to be
abundant. Wheat is now generally in the ear. Beans are
in full blossom, and have a very fine appearance. The
turnip braird is regular and strong, and oats and barley
never exhibited a healthier blade. The rye-grass hay har-
vest has commenced ; and although not so heavy as was at one
time expected, the crop will still be equal to, if not better,
than an average one.
BARRIIILL, JUNE 30. —The crops on the Water of Stinchar,
and on the Water of Dusk, never had a more promising ap-
pearance than they have this season. Not the slightest symp-
tom is exhibited of failure in the potatoe crop, which looks
remarkably healthy. The farmers in this neighbourhood have
already begun to cut their hay, which will be a heavy crop
also ; and if this week keep dry, many will have their hay in
ricks before its close.

THE TAILOR'S STRIKE. BY THE ETTRICK

SHEPHERD.

I weel remember in the year wan, a like visitation in the
forest. It wasna on sae big a scale, for the boonds wouldna
admit of its bein' sae ; but the misery was nae less, though
contrackit within a narrower circle, The tailor o' Yarrow
Ford. without havin' shown ony symptoms o' the phoby the
nicht afore, ae mornin' at sax o'clock--strack The misery
was dreadfu'. It was just at the dawn o' the season o' tailors,
when a' owre the forest there begins the makin' o' new claes,
and the reparin' o' auld—the maist critical time o' the haill
year. At sax he strack, and by nine it was kent frae Selkirk
to the Grey-Mare's Tail. A' at ance—no ordinar claes
only—but marriage-shoots an' murnins were at a deed
stawn. A' the folk in the Forest saw at ance that it was
impossible decently to get either married or buried.
For would ye believe't, the mad body was aff owre the hills,
and bat Watty o' Ettrick Pen ! Of course he strack—an' in
turn aff by a short cut to the Lochs, and bat Bauldy o' Bour-
hope, wha loupit frae the boond-like a puddock an' flang the
guse in the fire, swearin' by the shears, as he flourished them
roun' his heed, an' than sent them into the awse-hole, that a' man-
kind micht thenceforth gang naket for him up to the oxters in
gnaw ! The three Tailors then formed themsell's intil a
union, an' boond themsells by an aith, the words o' which hae
never transpired, but nae doot they were fearsome ; an' they
ratified it, it has been said, wi' three draps each o' their
ain bluid, let oot wi' the jag o' a needle, no to shue
anither steek gin the Forest were a' to fa' doon afore
them on its knees. Never was there sic a terrible treeo as
them o' Yarrow Ford, Ettrick Pen, and. Bourhope ; three
decenter tailor lads a week afore, ye micht hae searched for
in vain owre the wide warld. The streck changed them intil
demons. They cursed, they swore, they drank, they danced,
they fought—first, wi' whatever folk happened to fa' in wi'
them on the stravaig ; an' then, casting oot amang themsells,
wi' ane anither, till a three got black een, an' siccan noses !
Ye never saw a Tredd's Union like it. Some folk began
tailorin' for theirsells ; but there was a strong prejudice against,
an' to them that made the attempp, the result was baith ludi-
crous an' painfu'. Imagine a pair o' breeks wi' the back part
afore—an' you see they shaped them sae, without bein' able to
help it, for it's a kittle airt cuttin' oot. There was Dandy o'
Dryhop, in breeks o' his ain gettin' up, rashly daured to ford
the Yarrow ; but they gripped him sae ticht, that he could
mak' na head 'gain the water comin' doon sae strang', an' he
was swoopit aff his feet, an' tarn out mair like a bundle o' claes
than a man. But a' yerthly things hae an en', and sae had the
streck. To mak' a lang story short, the tailors gied in, an'
the Tredds Union fell to pieces.—Blackwood for July.

The Worcester Herald says, that " the barristers
who attend the Worcestershire and Warwickshire sessions have
decreed among themselves that, on future appeals, two counsel
must be employed on each appeal, and consequently that in
each case there must be two briefs, and double fees." The at-
torneys must be great fools, if they submit to such a rule.
BONE MA NURE.—It appears that on dry sands,
limetsone, chalk,' light loams, and peat, bones are a very
highly valuable manure; they may be laid on grass with
great good effect—that on arable lands they may be laid
on fallow for turnips, or used for any of the subsequent
crops—that the best method of using them, when broadcast, is
previously to mix them up with earth, dung, or other manures,
and let them lie to ferment—that if used alone, they may either
be drilled with seed or sown broadcast—that bones which have
undergone the process of fermentation arc decidedly superior
to those which have not done so—that the quantity should
be about twenty-five bushels of dust, or forty bushels of
large, increasing the quantity, if the land be impo-
verished— that upon clays and heavy barns it does not
yet appear that bones will answer. With respect to
price, it is not important to note any particulars beyond the
calculation of the expense of a dressing of bones compared
with farm-yard dung. Twenty-fire bushels of dust at the
present price of 25., would amount to 21. 10s. Forty bushels
of large bones at is. 10d. would amount to 3/. 13s. 4d., and
these are shown to be equal to an ordinary dressing of eight
or ten loads of fold manure, which at los. would amount to
4/. or 51. But the most material saving will be in the car-
riage, and in the difference of expense between drilling bones
with the seed and dressing the land over with dung in the
usual manner. A still greater advantage accrues from their
use in the saving of time, which may enable a farmer to put in
the turnip seed sooner ham where there is so much carting
to perform..—Report of the Doncaster Agricultural Associatiov.

HANDWRITINGS.

• (-1 C
From the fifth volume of a new edition, jiist published, 4{2)15-
raelli's Curiosities of Literature, peibano e. anos rooting
and judiciously chosen collection of anee\clo ' en *th po-
litical and literary history in any languag 0
Oldy's, in one of his curious notes, was ruck by the dis-
tinctness of character in the handwritings of several of our
kings. He observed nothing further than the mere fact, and
did not extend his idea to the art of judging of the natural
character by the writing. Oldys has described these hand-
writings with the utmost correctness, as I have often verified.
I shall add a few comments. " Henry VIII. wrote a strong
hand, but as if he had seldom a good pen." The vehemence
of his character conveyed itself ii,to his writing ; bold, hasty,
and commanding. I have no doubt the assertor of the Pope's
supremacy and its triumphant destroyer split many a good
" Edward VI. wrote a fair legible hand." We have this
promising young Prince's diary, written by his own hand ; in
all respects he was an assiduous pupil, and he had Scarcely
learned to write and to reign when we lost him. •
" Queen Elizabeth writ an upright hand like the bastard
Italian." She was indeed a most elegant caligrapher, whom
Roger Ascham had taught all the elegancies of the pen. The
French editor of the little autographical work I have noticed
has given the autograph of her name, which she usually wrote
in a very large tall character, and painfully elaborate. He
accompanied it with one of the Scottish Mary, who .at times
wrote elegantly, though usually in uneven lin s ; when in haste
and distress of mind, in several letters during her imprisonment
which I have read, much the contrary. The French editor
makes this observation :—" Who could believe that these
writings are of the same epoch ? The first denotes asperity
and ostentation ; the second indicates simplicity, softness, and
nobleness. The one is that of Elizabeth, Queen of England,
the other that of her cousin, Mary Stuart. The difference of
these two handwritings answers most evidently to that of their
characters."
" James I. writ a poor ungainly character, all awry, and
not in a straight line." James certainly wrote a slovenly
scrawl, strongly indicative of that personal negligence which
he carried into all the I:ttle things of 1 fa ; and Buchanan, who
made him an excellent scholar, may receive the disgrace of his
pupil's ugly scribble, which sprawls about his careless and in-
elegant letters.
" Charles I. wrote a fair open Italian hand, and more cor-
rectly perhaps than any Prince we ever had." Charles was
the first of our monarchs who intended to have domiciliated
taste in our kingdom, and it might have been conjectured from
this unfortunate prince, who so finely discriminated the man-
ners of the different painters, which are in fact their hand-
writings, that he would not have been insensible to elegancies
of the pen.
" Charles 11. wrote a little fair runniog hand, as if wrote in
haste, or uneasy till he had done." Such was the writing to have
been expected from this illustrious vagabond, who had much
to write, often in odd situations, and could never get rid of his
restlessness and vivacity.
" James 11. wrote a large fair hand." It is characterized
by his phlegmatic temper, as an exact detailer of occurrences,
and the matter. of-business genius of the writer.
" Queen Anne wrote a fair round hand ;" that is, the writ-
ing she had been taught by her master, probably without any
alteration of manner naturally suggested by herself, the copy-
ing hand of a common character.