Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-09-13
From Dickens Household Words.
SCOTCH COAST FOLK.

The Bridge of Don has, for many centuries, been
a bridge of renown, under the name Of the Brig o
Balgouuie. Indeed ever since the quaking, SILVER
ing, cracking, shifting, rising, sinking, and revolu-
tionary planet Earth, which we inhabit-dclusive-
" believing the plaything of fire and Hood is some
thing staid, solid and conservative-spli the rocks
of Balgounie into a chaSm of trowning granite, the
locality has not been one to be forgotten by man
or beast, however slightly tinctured with geolog-
zeal curiosity. When the split was made by an
earthquake, the waters of the bills aud the waves
of the sea filed it up with diluvial soil, or with
sand and pebbles. Ever since, the river called the
Don has flowed through it to the sea. Probably,
che records of a grand catastrophe Of nature, in
scribed upon the spot, were the first sources of the
traditions which flied this dark abyss with super,
natural creatures with Neptunic and Volcanic
impersouations, kelpies and brownies. No doubt
the wild chasm seemed something formidable when
it cut off communication between the scanty fam
lilies who inhabited the district of Buchan and the
few hundreds OF persons who formed the germs OF
the populations Of Old and New Aberdeen.
After the Scotch had secured their independence,
by the final expulsion of the English from Scot
land. they naturally turned their attention to the
improvement Of their country and bridge build
ing must have seemed the most glorious art of the
epoch. The Brig O Bnlgounie would of good
right attract universal fame. The bridge was built
towards the end Of the reign of Robert the Bruce,
upon the estate of Balgounie, and was probably as
great a marvel Of the art of the engineer, in the
fourtheepth, as the tubular bridge is in the nine
teenth century. The River Don, in approaching
the sea, flows slowly and darkly through a chasm
in the granite rocks, which is fully halfa-mile long.
Being black and deep, one corner Of it is called
The Black Neuk. At the turning oVt of the black
nook. the rocks of the chasm approach and just
whero the river comes in sight Of the sea, the
engineer has thrown, from rock to rock across the
sullen food, a bridge of Il single, lofty, narrow,
Gothic arch. The name Of Bishop Cheyne is con.
aAsfNi with ito aractIau =. huf urlntaykr n bap a
been the utility Of the bridge, and however great
may have been the admiration of it as a work of
art, the population of the neighbOrhOod must have
been terribly oppressed by the clergy. When the
Reformation came, they destroyed the magnificent
cathedral Of the parish, Old Machar. And even
in the nineteenth century, the reply to any enc
who said to the Don fishers or peasantry, "Why
the bishops, at any rate, gave you r wonderful
bridge" was, AYE, but they oppressed us well to
pay for H." CORtonl pOrary with Bishop Cheyne,
with Brace, and Wallace, there lived ia Scotland
a Thomas the Rhymer, who never bled for his
country, wko built no useful bridges in it, who did
aothing for it that | wOt of but rhyme, but who
has left behind him 4 name rivaliing the fame of
the heroes. When the bridge WAS the admiration
of everybody, and when old people, whose minds
broOded 9veT traditions Of earthquakes would be
saying, Where there has been ono crack there
may be another" Thomas recorded in rhyme the
popular prophecy; and the people exalted to the
sapsrnaturai rank the man who expressed their
owe Etse guesses ia e~ver-mem0rable words,
Thcnas said, in words of old Scotch. which ]
t~rans,ate, fer the benefit of my eountrymeu,
~'StrOng Is Sosr vail Bridge OF Baigouuiei But,
with q wife's only grandson and a mares only foal,
dow you shall ial''-
tHa Wight is yer wa
4a-t- Brig o Bligouuie1
But vi a wife's ae ole
An a mares as foie.
Doom ye sail IA.
Persons who remember the earthquake Of
eighteen hundred and si1teen will not wonder that
gray beaded ysoPs. sbosld Lage doubted the stabil-
sty Of tke fridge Vbg, & remember rushing in
asy pigtteio;ass into the middls OF the street an
shs carly morning, and eRe0untering a crowd OF
asigtbsss who had ia night Of nothing bat escaping
srsn tAeir shakins houses. Nobody sho remem-
hezs is can ever allsE wards have a particle Of