Page:Important passages in the life of Mansie Wauch, tailor in Dalkeith.pdf/3

 PASSAGES IN THE

COMING INTO THE WORLD.

I have no distinct recollection of the thing myself, yet there is every reason to believe that I was born on the 15th of October, 1765, in that little house, standing by itself, not many yards from the eastmost side of the Flesh-Market Gate, Dalkeith. My eyes opened on the light about two o'clock in a dark and rainy morning. Long was it spoken about that something great and mysterious would happen on that dreary night; as the car, after washing her face, gaed mewing about, with her tail sweeing behind her like a ramrod; and a corbie, from the Duke's woods, tumbled down Jamie Elder's lam, when he had set the little still a-going—giving them a terrible fright as they took it for the deevd and then for an exciseman—and fell with a great cloud of soot, and a loud skraigh into the empty kail pot.

The first thing that I have any clear memory of, was my being carried out on my auntie's shoulder, with a leather cap tied under my chin, to see the Fair Race. Oh! but it was a grand sight! I have read since then the story of Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp but this beat it all to sticks. There was a long row of tables, covered with carpets of patterns, heaped from one end to the other with shoes of every kind and size, some with polished soles, and some glittering with sparribles and cuddy-heels; and little red worsted boots for bairns, with blue and white edgings, hinging like strings of