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    Mitchell -was . altogether a straage mixture of fanaticism , madness and humour . He published many pamphlets and single sheet 3 , very full of amusing nonsense , and generally adorned with a wooden cut of the Mitchell arms . Some of his poetry was re-printed about twenty years ago , by Messrs . Oliver and Boyd , in small parcels , and

    sold at one pebriy , His verses possess humour equal to that of ( his contemporary ) Allan Ramsay ' s , but are debased by great coarseness and obscenity . In one of his yprose pieces he gives a furious account of a journey which he made into France , where , he

    affirms , the c * King ' s Court is six times bigger than the Kling of Britain ' s ; his guards ^ avfe all feathers in their hats , and their liOTse-taUs are to

    their heels ; aua their king * is one of the best-favo % red bbys that you can look upon , —6 ) ythe lyke * with black hair ; and all tdipeople are better natured in general than tlie Scots or English , except the priests . Their women seem to be modest , for they have no -. farding ^ les , Th ^ greatest wonder I fcaftr in Prance * was to see

    the braiv people &U down on their knees on the clatty gro&nd , when the priest comes by carrying the cross to give & sick person the sacrrament . " The Tinkiarian Doctor ( for such was his popular appellation ) aj > pears to have been fully acquainted with an ingenious expedient ^ wj ^ icTi wre observe

    practised by many publishers of juvenile tpy-bopks ia our own day , — nanaely , that of self-recommendation . As in certain sage little histories of Tommy arid Harry , King Pepin , &c , we are sure to find that "the good boy who loved his lessons" always bought his books from " kind , good , old Mr . J . Newburv , at the Corner of

    St . Paul ' s Churchyard , where the greatest assortment of nice books for good boys and girls is always to be had / 7 — so , in the works of Mr . Mitchell , we find some sly encomium upon the Tinkiarian Doctor constantly peeping forth ; and in the pamphlet from which we made the above

    extract , we have , moreover , a plentiful advertisement or puff pf his professional excellence as a white-smith . " I have , " he says , < c a good pennyworth of pewter spoons , tine like silver , none such made in Edinburgh , and silken pocks for wiggs , and French

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    white pearl ^ e 8 Hte , rrt aU to , bp said : for little ^ n ^ &g 4 ' ff ^ e \ ^> p ^ yof the VVorksof tj ^ at Bmuwint |>* $ i | e and Historian , Doctor William Mitchell , Professor of Tinklarianism in the University of the Bow-heap ^ Seeing a . Syse of Divinity , Humanity , liistory , Philosophy , Law and Physic ; Composed at , various Occasions for his own Satis / action and the Worlds

    Illumination . " In his works he does not scruple to make the personages whom he introduces speak of himself as a mueh wiser man than the Archbishop of Canterbury , ail the clergymen of his . native country , and even the magistrates of Edinburgh 1 One

    of his last productions was a pamphlet on the raur ^ r of Captain Porteous , which he cpnclud ^ a by saying , in the true spirit of ja ( Dameroniaii martyr , € t If the King and Clergy gar hang me for writing * this * I ' m content , because

    it is long since any man was hanged for religion /' . Butwe give him little credit for this expression ; for whatever may be ^ aid , there is fully , as much pleasure and { advantage , as pain and loss , in what sectarians ate pleased to call martyrdom , v ,

    The abode of thi ? singular enthusiast has been pointed out to U 3 , as that low ceilar on the west side of the Bowhead , ( Ho . 19 , ) now occupied by Mrs . Philips a dealer in small wares ; here he is said to have delivered his lectures to the sieves of the Bow-head University * ¦ . ' . „ .

    The profession of which the Tink . larian Doctor stfbscribed himself a member has long been predominant in the West Bow . We see > from a preceding extract , that it reckoned

    dagger-makers among its worthy denizens in the reign of James VI . ; but this trade has long been happily extinct every where in Scotland ; tltough their less formidable brethren the

    whitesmiths , copper-smiths and pewterers , have continued down to our own day to keep almost unrivalled possession of the Bow . Till within these few years there was scarcely a shop in this crooked street occupied by other tradesmen ; and we can easily imagine , that men ; and we can easily imagine , that

    the noise of so many hammerwieapent up in a narrow thoroughfare would be extremely annoying . So remarkable was it for this , that country people used to ask any acquaintance lately returned from town , it" he went to hear

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    684 Chambers & Traditions of Edinburgh .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1825, page 584, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2541/page/8/