of her father, Robert Weir, who lived in the neighbouring city. He came to the place of Waristoun to see her; but it appears her resolution failed, and he was not admitted. She again sent for him and he again went. Again he was not admitted. At length, on his being called a third time, he was introduced to her presence. Before this time, she had found an accomplice in the nurse of her child. It was then arranged that Weir should be concealed in the cellar till the dead of night, when he should come forth and proceed to destroy the laird as he lay in his chamber. The bloody tragedy was acted precisely in accordance with this plan. Weir was brought up, at midnight, from the cellar to the hall by the lady herself, and afterwards went forward alone to the laird's bedroom. As he proceeded to his bloody work, she retired to her bed to wait the intelligence of her husband's murder. When Weir entered the chamber, Waristoun awoke with the noise, and leaned inquiringly over the side of the bed. The murderer then leaped upon him; the unhappy man uttered a great cry; Weir gave him some severe blows on vital parts, particularly one on the flank vein. But as the laird was still able to cry out, he at length saw fit to take more effective measures: he seized him by the throat with both hands, and, compressing that part with all his force, succeeded after a few minutes in depriving him of life. When the lady heard her husband's first death-shout, she leaped out of bed in an agony of mingled horror and repentance, and descended to the hall; but she made no effort to countermand her mission of destruction. She waited patiently till Weir came down to inform her that all was over. Weir made an immediate escape from justice; but Lady Waristoun and the nurse were apprehended before the deed was half a day old. Being caught, as the Scottish law terms it, red-hand—that is, while still bearing unequivocal marks of guilt, they were immediately tried by the magistrates of Edinburgh, and sentenced to be strangled and burnt at a stake. The lady's father, the laird of Dunipace, who was a favourite of King James VI., made all the

interest he could with his Majesty to procure a pardon; but all that could be obtained from the king was an order that the unhappy lady should be executed by decapitation, and that at such an early hour in the morning as to make the affair as little of a spectacle as possible. The space intervening between her sentence and her execution was only thirty-seven hours; yet in that little time, Lady Waristoun contrived to become converted from a bloodstained and unrelenting murderess into a perfect saint on earth. One of the then ministers of Edinburgh, has left an account of her conversion, which was lately published, and would be extremely amusing, were it not for the loathing which seizes the mind on beholding such an instance of perverted religion. She went to the scaffold with a demeanour which would have graced a martyr. Her lips were incessant in the utterance of pious exclamations. She professed herself confident of everlasting happiness. She even grudged every moment which she spent in this world, as so much taken from that sum of eternal felicity which she was to enjoy in the next. The people who came to witness the last scene, instead of having their minds inspired with a salutary horror for her crime, were engrossed in admiration of her saintly behaviour, and greedily gathered up every devout word which fell from her tongue. It would almost appear, from the narrative of the clergyman, that her fate was rather a matter of envy than of any other feeling.

The execution of this wretched woman took place at four o'clock in the morning, on the 5th of July 1600, at the Watergate, an open spot at the foot of the Canongate of Edinburgh, near Holyrood House. According to her sentence, she was beheaded with an axe. At the same hour, her nurse was burnt on the Castle Hill-an open esplanade which had been a common place for executing this kind of capital punishment. It is some gratification to know that the actual murderer, Weir, was eventually seized and executed, though not till four years after.

ENGLISH CHARITIES AND CURIOUS BEQUESTS.*

GREAT BRITAIN is celebrated amongst the nations of Europe for two happy characteristics -extensive and useful charities, and the security afforded to property. Political revolution, which has from time to time convulsed and changed the condition of society in neighbouring countries, has only in one instance been seriously felt in England. And even during the Protectorate, the rights of private property were respected quite as fully as the nature of the times would permit. For this reason, many of the charitable bequests which were made hundreds of years ago, still continue to be preserved, and distributed with integrity. The oldest institutions of a charitable character, therefore, in Europe, exist in Great Britain; some of them having accumulated from small beginnings to a degree of affluence, which has enlarged their sphere of benevolence far beyond the most sanguine wishes of the long-departed donors.

But it is not extraordinary that, out of the vast amount of good which has thus been accomplished, some evils should have sprung. Benevolence, prompted by the best intentions, is occasionally misplaced. In some instances, the objects selected for its exercise are not worthy of, or not even benefited by, the giver's liberality. It is, again, in the very nature of many charities to hold out assistance to persons who would otherwise obtain it by exerting themselves, and thus to withdraw those motives of selfaction and self-reliance which should never be damped even by benevolence. An instance of this kind occurs at Stanton-upon-Wye, Herefordshire. 'George Jarvis, Esq., gave, by will, in 1790, L.30,000 to be invested in

A Collection of Old English Customs and Curious Bequests and Charities, extracted from the Reports made by the Commissioners for Inquiring into Charities in England and Wales. By H. Edwards. London: Nichols and Son.

government securities, in trust, to apply the yearly produce thereof in money, provision, physic, or clothes, to the poor of this parish, of Bredwardine and Litten. The funds applicable to the objects of the donor's will in these parishes, in 1822, had increased from L.30,000 to L.92,496, 17s. 9d. On this case the commissioners observed, "that the population of the three parishes was only 1180, and the income arising from the charity nearly L.3000 per annum: it must be obvious that, even under the most judicious system of management, such a charity would be likely to be productive of considerable evils, and accordingly it appeared, at the time of the inquiry, that it had encouraged a spirit of discontent, and a disposition to idleness and improvidence, and had attracted to the parishes numerous persons from other districts, with a view of entitling themselves to a participation in the charity."" Neither is it wonderful, that in a long series of years, many charities should become mismanaged and misapplied; but, upon the whole, it may with safety be affirmed, that these are exceptions, as appears from the Report made by the Commissioners for Inquiring into English Charities. Institutions for the sick and for the young, are happily most abundant and the best supported, because they are the most needed. Hospitals and schools abound in every corner of the country; many of them of ancient date; though the great increase of such establishments has taken place in the present century.

The compilation before us, giving, as it does, accounts of singular bequests, is more curious than important. As a selection from the oddities of posthumous benevolence, it may be placed beside a book of droll epitaphs. Legacies for all sorts of objects and purposes are here recorded. Some individuals, possessing a love of good cheer, have left behind them prandial insurance funds for Christmas-day. At St Mary Major, Exeter, it appears, from a statement of charities in an old book, that John Martyn, by will, 28th November 1729, gave to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of this parish twenty pounds, to be put out at interest, and the profits thereof

to be laid out every Christmas-eve in twenty pieces of beef, to be distributed to twenty poor people of the parish, such as had no relief, on that day for ever.' The chamberlain of the corporation of Stafford pays, to certain old inhabitants of Forebridge, Staffordshire, six shillings every Christmas, to be laid out in plums, which are divided into equal quantities, and made up into parcels, one for each of the houses, fifteen or sixteen in number, entitled by the established usage to receive a portion, without reference to the circumstances of the inhabitants. It appears that several years ago the payment was discontinued, but on application from the late Mr Clarke of Forebridge, it was resumed by an order of the corporation; and from that time the money has been paid to Mr Clarke during his life, and since to his son, to whom the occupiers of the privileged houses apply on Christmas day, and receive their plums.' At PiddleHinton, in Devonshire, mince-pies, ale, and bread, are distributed every Christmas to upwards of three hundred persons.

Some charities have sprung from quarters whence they are seldom expected. Several instances are noticed of beggars being the founders, either by design or accident, of usefully benevolent funds. There is a kind of poetical justice in those who during life existed upon charity, having their effects distributed in charity after their death. The parish of Upper Holker, Lancashire, 'possesses five acres of land, which were bought by the inhabitants with the sum of 185 guineas, which were found in the pocket of a travelling beggar who died in 1799, in a lodging-house in Upper Holker. And at Slindon, in Sussex, the sum of L.15 was placed in the Arundel Savings' Bank in the year 1824, the interest of which is distributed on St Thomas's Day. It is said that this money was found many years since on the person of a beggar, who died by the road-side, and the interest of it has always been appropriated by the parish officers for the use of the poor.'

Bequests for church bell-ringing are numerous in every