Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1862-07-17
! DESCRIPTION OF 1.-THE COUNTRY
-.... ., .. PARSON.' a.. r4s.s'.5
MR.. BOYD AT HIS HOME IN SCOTLAND.

MR.. BOYD AT HIS HOME IN SCOTLAND.
Rev. Gilbert Haven, Methodist clergyman
now travelling in Scotland, thus describes The
Country Parson" in letter to the Independent i:
A third Edinburgh celebrity is the Country
Parson. His recreations have refreshed, if they
have not recreated many souls. He may not
like pen-and-ink sketch of himself; but as he
mas allowed his face to appear at the front of his
last volume, and as he also has to submit to the
exposure and even sale of it in his own parisha
by his own admiring auditory, he cannot COM
PLAIN OF this attempt to body him forth to his
distant but not Indifferent friends. I promise
the picture shall be truer to nature, and yet bet
ter looking than those previously published
They both do him injustice. The one sold in
his parish puts him in robes and surplice, with
an unnatural air of solemnity and cheerlessness
totally unlike both himself and his writing. The
one IN Leisure Hours in Town is not SO ex-
pressive and lively as it ought to be. Perhaps
my attempt will be like or worse failure. New.
ertheless, let US try.;-.<.1 F.55a z-g. ...-..
Being lion-hunting like the Nimrods in AT.
RIGA, 60 to their hnning.grounds. Armed on
ly with card and little Yankee brass, pre-.
sent myself at his door. He lives in quiet and
delightful part of the generally most delightful
city Of Edinburgh-a comfortable, spacious,
stone city house is his home. 1t was long the
residence of Professor Aytoun, the present edi-
tor Of BLackpood, and well.known author of spir-
tied ballads. send in my card with U. s. Al
upon it, and am Immediately ushered into his
presence: He very cordially welcomes me, and
we forget in five minutes that we were ever
strangers-at least did. He was carefully and
elegantly, yet not clerically dressed. He speaks
more rapidly than is usual in this country, as
though he had caught the spirit of the Ameri-
cans with their approval. His face lights up
with smiles, and his lips run over with humor.
Many odd reflections on men and things, uttered
in dry manner, as if half unconscious of them
while thoroughly conscious, give that quaintness
and vigor to his speech that exist in his writings
It would be transgressing the bounds of propri-
ETY. to report private and familiar talk, but the
style conformed perfectly to the style that he
voluntarily sets before the public. He is of
medium height and size, in the neighborhood of
forty-looking under that age. His country par
sonage was near Dumfries, the region where
Burns spent his last years and wrote many of
his finest pieces. 1t was the neighborhood, too,
Of the famous Jeanne and Efie Deans Of the
Heart of Mid Lothian. learned that said Eff
he did not turn out as well as Sir Walter ina
gines. Her last appearance was as driver of q
water cart in Dumfries-a most profane old
woman. The people Of that region never ap-
proved her acquittal, and her final character
seemed to sustain their decision. Very beauti-
full are the hills and wales of that region-sweet,
quiet, pastoral, with forests enough to break up
the otherwise too high finish of culture. 1t is
the very spot for sauntering musings, such as
characterize his pen. No city study can COM
pare with it. And if he maintains the genial
ty, freshness, piquancy Of his manse in his pres
ent home, it will show that the roots there plant
ed have struck deep, and that as fine trees can
grow in a city park as in o country forest.
His church is very crowded, and he is prob
ably the most popular of the younger preachers
| Ct the city, and more than any other except DIR.
Guthrie. 1t is a.neat though unpretending af-
falr, like most of the Scotch churches, and holds
about twelve hundred persons"