the Gunpowder Plot, he fled with Catesby and Percy into Warwickshire, where they all three shared the same fate,-being shot in a vain attempt to withstand a party sent to apprehend them.

LETTER

LETTER

FROM

PEREGRINE ROVER, Esq.

ΤΟ

TACITUS TORPEDO, Esq.

MY DEAR TORPEDO,

You, who are accustomed to the eccentric motions of your friend, will not be surprised to perceive, that this epistle is dated from the capital of Scotland. On the contrary, it is probable, after the many months that have elapsed since you last heard from that you may have expected my wanderings to have been, as usual,

me,

extended beyond the limits of our native island. And this undoubtedly would have been the case, but for some particular circumstances which have kept me stationary here, and prevented a voyage to St Petersburgh which I had projected, by taking ship at Leith, after returning from a tour through the Highlands; and where I should now have been, studying living men and manners, instead of recording the actions of people who existed more than two centuries ago, which is to be the present employment of my pen.

Know then, my dear friend, and be astonished at the information, that I, Peregrine Rover, have submitted to habits as sedentary as your own,

and become for some time past a slave to the quill, that I may give to the world an authentic copy of a MS., which fell into my hands in a most extraordinary manner; and which, from my previous peregrinations in the land of second-sight, oracular predictions, spirits, fairies, &c. I was almost induced to believe was managed by some such supernatural agency, so strange were the incidents which led to its discovery, and to my determination of making it public.

Now, to relate all things in order, I must inform you, that, on my return from the Highlands, I took Perth in my way; where being introduced to two of its most learned