tess of Dalhousie. This place
is chiefly worthy of attention here, on account of a strange heirloom,
with which the welfare of the family was formerly supposed to be
connected.

"One of the Barons of Coalstoun, about three hundred years ago,
married Jean Hay, daughter of John, third Lord Yester, with whom he
obtained a dowry, not consisting of such base materials as houses or
land, but neither more nor less than a pear. 'Sure such a pear was
never seen,' however, as this of Coalstoun, which a remote ancestor of
the young lady, famed for his necromantic power, was supposed to have
invested with some enchantment that rendered it perfectly invaluable.
Lord Yester, in giving away his daughter, informed his son-in-law
that, good as the lass might be, her dowry was much better, because,
while she could only have value in her own generation, the pear, so
long as it was continued in his family, would be attended with
unfailing prosperity, and thus might cause the family to flourish to
the end of time. Accordingly, the pear was preserved as a sacred
palladium, both by the laird who first obtained it, and by all his
descendants; till one of their ladies, taking a longing for the
forbidden fruit while pregnant, inflicted upon it a deadly bite: in
consequence of which, it is said, several of the best farms on the
estate very speedily came to the market."

The pear, tradition goes on to tell us, became stone hard immediately
after the lady had bit it, and in this condition it remains till this
day, with the marks of Lady Broun's teeth indelibly imprinted on it.
Whether it be really thus fortified against all further attacks of the
kind or not, it is certain that it is now disposed in some secure part
of the house--or as we have been informed in a chest, the key of which
is kept secure by the Earl of Dalhousie--so as to be out of all danger
whatsoever. The "Coalstowne pear," it is added, without regard to the
superstition attached to it, must be considered a very great curiosity
in its way, "having, in all probability, existed five hundred years--a
greater age than, perhaps, has ever been reached by any other such
production of nature."

Another strange heirloom--an antique crystal goblet--is said to have
been for a long time in the possession of Colonel Wilks, the
proprietor of the estate of Ballafletcher, four or five miles from
Douglas, Isle of Man. It is described as larger than a common
bell-shaped tumbler, "uncommonly light