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Devising a
Clean Energy
Strategy for
Asian Cities
Devising a Clean Energy Strategy for Asian Cities
Hooman Farzaneh
Editor

Devising a Clean Energy

Strategy for Asian Cities
Editor
Hooman Farzaneh
Interdisciplinary Graduate School of
Engineering Sciences
Kyushu University
Fukuoka, Japan

ISBN 978-981-13-0781-2 ISBN 978-981-13-0782-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0782-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018948703

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019

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Preface

Cities throughout Asia have experienced an unprecedented economic development

over the past decades. In many cases, this has contributed to their rapid and
uncontrolled growth and has resulted in multiple problems, which include a rapid
population increase, enhanced environmental pollution, collapsing traffic systems,
dysfunctional waste management, as well as a rapid increase in the consumption of
energy, water, and other resources.
The twin challenges of global climate change and energy insecurity in Asian
cities can only be solved with rapid devising of clean energy strategies, both for
energy supply and energy efficiency. Moreover, this rapid development is needed
globally. The big challenges concerning the clean energy development in Asian
cities spring from the lack of awareness at the local government level and the limited
institutional capacities and arrangements. Comprehensive policies focused on clean
energy and mitigation do not currently exist at the city level in Asia and only a
minority of developed countries such as Japan and Korea have started formulating
such policies. Development processes in Asian cities have generated many social
and economic benefits in the last decades, but the patterns of urban development
have shown themselves to be deficient in a number of areas. Consequently, urban
areas in Asia contribute increasingly to climate change, as well as suffering many of
its impacts.
Thus, in an attempt to provide some viable solutions for clean energy strategy
development in urban Asia, we aim to publish this book. The clean energy strategy
we propose in this book refers to the development and implementation of policies
and strategies that simultaneously contribute to addressing climate change and
solving local environmental problems, which also have other development impacts.
This book provides insights to a wide audience on successful ways to promote,
design, and implement the clean energy policies in Asian cities. The objective of this
book is to examine the main obstacles, opportunities, and challenges to implemen-
tation of environmental benefits–related policies in urban areas in Asia. The book
focuses primarily on subnational processes, particularly in cities, but the research

v
vi Preface

also looks into the links of subnational processes to national and international
processes.
This book capitalizes on two hot topics: the low carbon emission development
strategies and climate change in Asian cities. There is a resurgence in making
policies to investigate more aspects of the energy-environment spectrum for the
global energy market in the future. This book helps the policy makers and
researchers to understand which actions should be taken to reduce the environmental
impacts of economic activities in different regions in Asia. To determine the global
actions, it is necessary to make breakthroughs by promoting further research and to
present scenarios that achieve SDGs without dependence upon fossil fuels. The
scenarios and case studies discussed in this book are helpful to plan for the SDGs,
where various objectives have to be achieved at the same time. The UN 2030
development agenda needs innovative planning to achieve multiple goals with
limited resources and generate synergy among sectors. This book will be one of
the first books available on this subject. The chapters of this book would use a
combination of methodologies and case studies to develop effective science-policy
interaction to address the opportunities where clean energy strategies can be used to
support energy system, environmental, and/or economic development planning
strategies across in Asian cities.
This book is basically structured on a collaborative research network consisting
of scholars and experts from a number of the most global cities in the Asia-Pacific
region to provide an analytical framework for conducting regular synthesis and
assessment together with real case studies and the lessons which can be learned
from them. I am grateful to the authors of the various chapters for their contributions.
The content of this book is based on the experiences achieved from a funded
project, entitled “Multiple Benefits Assessment of the Low Emission Development
Strategies in Asia Pacific Cities” and a series of workshops organized with the local
stakeholders at the Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University.
We acknowledge the financial support of Asia-Pacific Network for Global
Change Research (Ref. CRRP2017-07SY-Farzaneh), the Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science (grant-in-aid for the scientific research (C)), the Unit of
Academic Knowledge Integration Studies of Kyoto University, and the Future
Development Funding Program 2017 of Kyoto University Research Coordination
Alliance.

Fukuoka, Japan Hooman Farzaneh

April, 2018
Contents

Part I Analytical Approach

1 Scenario Analysis of Low-Carbon Urban Energy System in Asian
Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Hooman Farzaneh
2 Taking a Co-benefits Approach in Asia: A Comparative Analysis
of Barriers with Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Bingyu Chiu and Eric Zusman
3 Limits to Urbanization: Application of Integrated Assessment
for Smart City Development in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Benjamin McLellan, Tania Bhattacharya, Anindya Bhattacharya,
and Tetsuo Tezuka
4 Governing the Urban Commons: Experimentalist Governance
for Resilient Climate Co-benefits Regime in Asian Megacities . . . . . 67
Antonio José Junqueira Botelho
5 Urban Transformation Towards Sustainability in Asian Cities . . . . 103
Miho Kamei

Part II Lessons from Real Cases

6 Towards Clean and Sustainable Transport in Asian Cities:
Lessons Learnt from Japanese Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Yuki Kudoh
7 Targets and Supporting Strategies for the Clean Energy
Development in Delhi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Mahendra Sethi

vii
viii Contents

8 Toward Cleaner Cities: Renewable Energy Initiatives

in Malaysia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Nasrudin Abd Rahim, Hang Seng Che, Md Hasanuzzaman,
and Asiful Habib
9 Compact Energy Consumption: Urban Way of Energy Saving . . . . 187
Hwang Inchul
10 Tokyo’s Low-Emission Development Strategies Underlying
the Promotion of Energy Efficiency in Public
and Private Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Nikolaos Iliopoulos, Hooman Farzaneh, and Hideaki Ohgaki
Contributors

Anindya Bhattacharya The Celestial Earth, Gurgaon, India

Tania Bhattacharya The Celestial Earth, Gurgaon, India
Antonio José Junqueira Botelho IUPERJ, Candido Mendes University, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil
Hang Seng Che UMPEDAC, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Bingyu Chiu Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Hayama, Japan
Hooman Farzaneh Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences,
Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
Asiful Habib UMPEDAC, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Md Hasanuzzaman UMPEDAC, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Nikolaos Iliopoulos The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Hwang Inchul Korea Energy Agency, Yongin, South Korea
Miho Kamei Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Hayama, Japan
Yuki Kudoh National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology,
Tsukuba, Japan
Benjamin McLellan Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University,
Kyoto, Japan
Hideaki Ohgaki Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

ix
x Contributors

Nasrudin Abd Rahim UMPEDAC, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia
Mahendra Sethi Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow, India
Tetsuo Tezuka Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto,
Japan
Eric Zusman Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Hayama, Japan
 Part I
Analytical Approach
Chapter 1
Scenario Analysis of Low-Carbon Urban
Energy System in Asian Cities

Hooman Farzaneh

1.1 Introduction

The main challenges of the coming urban energy transitions in Asia include
increased urbanization in developing countries, climate change-energy security
imperatives, and new technologies at local and grid levels. These challenges high-
light the need for Asian cities to reconsider how new urban investments should be
prioritized in order to reduce resource consumption and emissions, as well as to
achieve local and national development goals. A number of factors influence energy
use in and the resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from these cities. The
major ones include:
• The urban spatial structure
• The nature of transportation systems, income, and lifestyle
• The energy efficiency of key technologies, industrial processes, and building
technologies
• Climate and waste disposal methods
Cities in rapidly industrialized regions of Asia face many tasks related to eco-
nomic and environmental issues. In megacities such as Beijing and Shanghai,
industries consume more than half of the total energy use, reflecting the fast growth
of Chinese economy, while in large cities of countries whose economies are growing
at a slower pace, it is the transportation sector which consumes more than half of the
total energy. Industry and power generation are major contributors to the carbon
footprint of Chinese cities. Meanwhile, residential and commercial buildings
account for more than half of the energy consumed in cities such as Tokyo and
Seoul.

H. Farzaneh (*)
Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
e-mail: farzaneh.hooman.961@m.kyushu-u.ac.jp

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 3

H. Farzaneh (ed.), Devising a Clean Energy Strategy for Asian Cities,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0782-9_1
4 H. Farzaneh

Urban authorities are largely not aware of the multiple benefits of energy man-
agement and GHG reduction. Given their growing scale and significance, Asian
cities will have to be active in the global fight against climate change if it is to be
effective. Municipal authorities in Asian cities therefore have a significant scope to
pursue urban low-emission strategies and clean energy initiatives in ways that will
also foster economic development. Moreover, clean energy initiatives at the city
scale could generate knowledge and innovations that can have wider economic and
social benefits, in addition to inspiring climate action in other cities and at a national
scale. Without more coordination between international, national, regional, and local
institutions, integration into different sectoral priorities and policies, and engage-
ment between the public, private, and civic sectors, it seems likely that the cities in
Asia will lock in more fully to high-cost, high-carbon development paths. Because of
the global significance of Asian cities, policies, and programs, facilitating large-scale
adoption and deployment of clean and renewable energy will need to play a central
role in this area.
Many local governments in Asian cities face a dual challenge in achieving
top-priority local development goals, such as improving standards of living through
extending access to modern energy and increasing employment while also
supporting national climate change action. To support broader development goals
while also reducing GHG emissions, a number of governments are developing and
implementing LEDS (low-emission development strategies) which aim to achieve
development priorities with minimal GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions as part of
their national objectives. Historically, literature on evaluating the impacts of a shift
to a low-emission pathway has focused on the costs, but in fact, the benefits may
outweigh the costs when considering broader impacts (e.g., public health). By
including the broader set of benefits in the cost-benefit analyses conducted during
planning processes, local governments get more comprehensive assessments of their
potential LEDS investments. Following APN’s Fourth Strategic Plan (2015–2020)
(APN 2015), this chapter aims to develop effective science-policy interaction to
address the opportunities where LEDS can be used to support energy system and
environmental and/or economic development planning strategies across the Asian
region.
Different institutions and organizations have a different understanding, definition,
and interpretation of benefits assessment of LEDS. For instance, the “co-benefits” is
defined by the MOEJ (Ministry of the Environment of Japan) and Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as the process of controlling GHG emissions and
reducing other local emissions (e.g., SO2, NOx, CO, and PM); on the other hand,
local pollution control in the sustainable development process can also reduce or
absorb CO2 and other GHG emissions (Smith et al. 2014; MOEJ 2008). The varying
use of this term in “Climate co-benefits” and “Climate and air co-impacts” indicated
that there is almost no agreement on assessing co-benefits with diverse methods and
tools. Some studies made in the similar research area mostly focus on qualifying the
co-benefits of mitigating GHG emissions and reducing air pollutants through poli-
cies of energy conservation, climate change, and air pollutant control (Farzaneh
2016, 2017a, b).
1 Scenario Analysis of Low-Carbon Urban Energy System in Asian Cities 5

The multiple benefits assessment which will be discussed in this chapter is far
beyond a simple co-benefits approach and will refer to the achievement of mitigating
climate change, solving local environmental and developmental problems, as well as
improving public health and local economy through the implementation of LEDS in
urban area. This chapter will demonstrate a new strategic planning mechanism for
achieving multiple energy, environmental, public health, and economic benefits of
clean energy development strategies in Asian cities, together with a robust analytical
framework that can be used to assess those benefits during the development and
implementation process. By evaluating potential clean energy policies with criteria
that cut across the multiple benefits, localities are able to select options that facilitate
the achievement of multiple goals and avoid options that may impede key priorities.

1.2 Integrated Analytical Framework

The term “multiple benefits” is effective because it emphasizes an integrated approach,

linking climate change mitigation to the achievement of sustainable development in the
economic systems. The broad concept of multiple benefits assessment in the urban
energy systems is gaining traction worldwide and consequently leading to changes in the
governance of cities. Assessing the multiple benefits of LEDS is usually based on
conclusions of many concepts and theories from different scientific disciplines. In this
investigation, in order to be able to quantify the multiple benefits (energy, environment,
health, and economy), the concept of LCS (Low-Carbon Society) has been used
(Farzaneh 2017a, b). Figure 1.1 describes the interaction between the design of the
energy system considering specific targets and the society which demands energy to
function in a sustainable way (Nakata et al. 2011). It can be explained through proposing
the LCS concept.

Fig. 1.1 Application of the LCS concept to an urban energy system

6 H. Farzaneh

Fig. 1.2 Overall schematic of the CGE model (Adopted from Böhringer 2004)

The implications of the LCS vision in the present society must balance the factors
related to the 3Es. Analysis of multidimensional interactions between 3Es and the
urban energy system is a complex task that necessitates the development and
utilization of analytical tools. To address this complex issue, in this research a
city-level CGE (computable general equilibrium) model has been developed on
the basis of the general equilibrium theory. It uses actual economic data from a
SAM (social accounting matrix) which is an accounting framework that reflects the
circular flow of city’s economic activity to estimate how a city might react to
changes in clean energy policies. In this model, the expenditures and savings are
the primary inputs to the subsequent analysis of macroeconomic effects on income,
employment, and output (Fig. 1.2).
The CGE model has two main parts: supply and demand. On supply side, the
microeconomic principles have been utilized to develop a concept that would
represent the behavior of an urban energy system in a market with a perfect
competition. The local government as a decision-maker in this market strives for
maximum satisfaction (or utility) of delivering certain energy service to the end users
such as providing required electricity at the end-user level. The utility or satisfaction
is a function of a broad range of parameters such as quality of the service, comfort,
accessibility, environment, costs, and time. Maximizing utility is subject to certain
constraints due to the availability of resources. The resources are time, capital for
obtaining a quality service, availability of reliable system environment, and income.
The solution of such a mathematical model would be possible if the utility function
could be identified and formulated explicitly based on both supplier (local govern-
ment) and consumer (end users) viewpoints. An alternative methodology has been
developed which may be categorized as a direct solution of the model. Although the
solution of the model based on the maximization of the utility of delivering energy
1 Scenario Analysis of Low-Carbon Urban Energy System in Asian Cities 7

services would be hardly possible due to difficulty in obtaining an explicit formu-

lation of the utility function, one may make an effort of solving the dual of the
primary model. The dual formulation of the primary model would achieve the
optimal utility with minimum total costs, which would direct capital and operation
costs. The above concept may be formulated on the basis of mathematical program-
ming approach as given below (Farzaneh et al. 2016a, b):
X
Min TC ¼ pi x i ð1:1Þ
i

subject to

f ð x1 ; . . . ; xn Þ  U ∗ ð1:2Þ
X
xi  Ri ð1:3Þ
i
xi  Ai ð1:4Þ
xi  0 ð1:5Þ

where:
TC: Total cost of the system
xi: Determinant factor i such as energy, material, land, technology, etc.
U*: Defined level of the utility
Ri: Available resource of determinant factor i such as fossil fuel or renewable energy
Ai: Bound on using or consumption of factor i such as technical, environmental,
institutional, and economic constraints
pi: Unit cost of determinant factor i (i.e., cost of technologies and energy carriers)
The level of segregation is usually determined by the ability to introduce the
number of end users and different technologies which are used to operate the flow of
energy from the resource level to the end-user level. On demand side, on the other
hand, end users are divided into buildings, transport, and industrial sectors. A
spreadsheet simulation model based on bottom-up end-use method and the Avoid-
Shift-Improve (A-S-I) approach has been applied to the end-user level in order to
assess the effect of different scenarios of socioeconomic, technological, and demo-
graphic developments on energy consumption and emissions of the citywide energy
system in a multi-sectoral context (Farzaneh et al. 2014). The model systematically
relates the GHG and air pollution emissions based on the specific energy demand in
the end-user sectors in cities to the corresponding social, economic, and technolog-
ical factors that affect this demand. The nature and level of the demand for energy are
a function of several determining factors, including population growth, number of
inhabitants per dwelling, number of electrical appliances used in households, local
priorities for the development of certain economic sectors, the evolution of the
efficiency of certain types of equipment, penetration of new technologies or energy
forms, etc. An understanding of these determining factors permits the evaluation of
the various categories of energy demand for the urban energy system considered.
8 H. Farzaneh

The total energy demand for each end-use category is aggregated into three main
energy consumer sectors. Application of the model is subject to the identification and
estimation of the performance function of the urban energy system which is possible
by segregating the whole energy system into incremental elements such as end user,
final energy, energy conversion, and energy resources. When various energy forms,
i.e., electricity, fossil fuels, etc., are competing for a given end-use category of
energy demand, this demand is calculated first in terms of useful energy and then
converted into final energy, taking into account market penetration and the efficiency
of each alternative energy source and using new technologies. Demand for fossil
fuels is therefore broken down in terms of coal, gas, or oil, and the substitution of
fossil fuels by alternative “new” energy forms (i.e., solar, wind, etc.) is estimated,
due to the importance of the structural changes in the urban energy system that these
energy forms may be introduced in the future. Since these substitutions will be
essentially determined by policy decisions, they are to be taken into account at the
stage of formulating and writing the scenarios of development. The scenarios can be
subdivided into two categories:
• One related to the socioeconomic system describing the fundamental character-
istics of the social and economic evolution of the urban energy system such as
lifestyle changes, population growth, and GDP growth
• The second related to the technological factors affecting the calculation of energy
demand, for example, the efficiency and penetration potential of each alternative
energy form and new technology such as smart grid
Following this approach, the planner can make assumptions about the possible
evolution of the social, economic, and technological development patterns of the
local energy system that can be anticipated from current trends and governmental
objectives. The methodology comprises the following sequence of operations:
• Desegregation of the total energy demand of the city into a large number of
end-use categories in a coherent manner
• Identification of the social, economic, and technological parameters which affect
each end-use category of the energy demand
• Establishing in mathematical terms the relationships which relate energy demand
and factors affecting this demand
• Estimation of the energy demand-related GHG emission and air pollution from
different sub-sectors
• Developing (consistent) scenarios (policy interventions) of social, economic, and
technological development for the given city’s energy system
• Evaluation of the climate co-benefits resulting from each scenario
• Selection among all possible scenarios proposed, the “most probable” patterns of
development for the city through analyzing CBA and system sustainability
Assessing the public health benefits of clean energy development in the selected
cities would be possible through selecting of concentration-response (C-R)
functions. For most of the health effects include premature mortality and exacerba-
tion of health conditions such as asthma, respiratory disease, and heart disease, a
1 Scenario Analysis of Low-Carbon Urban Energy System in Asian Cities 9

Fig. 1.3 Integrated energy-health impact assessment

variety of alternative C-R functions have been collected from epidemiological

research. In this model, using the source-receptor transfer matrix (SRTM) enables
us to evaluate the effects of avoided emissions of PM, SOx, and NOx (e.g., in units
of tons) on their concentrations (e.g., in units of μg/m3 or ppm). The SRTM is a
reduced-form model based on a standard Lagrangian dispersion model designed for
short-range (up to 10 km) dispersion in selected areas (i.e., road transport, waste
disposal site, etc.). The C-R functions have been used to link the estimated changes
in concentrations to a number of health endpoints. Finally, economic values for each
health effect will be derived from economic literature and can be carefully matched
to the types of avoided health effects estimated in this analysis. Figure 1.3 shows the
integration between the CGE model and public health co-benefits assessment model.
The CGE model is implemented as a mixed integer-linear programming problem
using the GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System) to find the minimum total
cost of delivering a certain level of energy service through the optimal combination
of available technologies and resources in the urban energy system.

1.3 Application of the Model to the Study Area: Delhi Clean

Transport Scenario

Delhi’s transportation sector is the largest consumer of energy and represents a major
contributor to GHG emissions and local air pollution. This sector is expected to
experience a large increase in fossil fuel consumption resulting from the fast growth
of private vehicles. Delhi already has exceptionally high levels of private car use
with around two million cars in the city (Farzaneh et al. 2016a, b). The city also
experienced rapid expansion of demand in urban transport which has led to
10 H. Farzaneh

Fig. 1.4 Projection of travel and energy demand in Delhi’s transport sector

Fig. 1.5 Projection of GHG and air pollution emissions in Delhi’s transport system

transportation networks with high traffic volumes of private transportation modes

and congestion, which has resulted in adverse health effects such as respiratory and
heart diseases. Public transport in Delhi is currently dominated by buses, but the
recent construction of a metro system has attracted much attention as a solution to
Delhi’s transport problems. Along with the expanding population and intensified
urban development, the projection of the travel demand and its related energy
consumption is represented in Fig. 1.4.
The demand for energy in this sector will experience a massive increase from
175 PJ in 2010 to 315 PJ in 2030, which would be dominated by gasoline fuel.
Depicted in Fig. 1.5, the total GHG emissions show an increasing trend from 5.4 Mt
CO2-eq in 2010 to 9.8 Mt CO2-eq in 2030.
The pollutant CO has the greatest weight in the air pollution indicator, while SO2
has the lowest weight. CO emissions from the transport sector are expected to
increase significantly to 1.5 million tonnes in 2030, which is mainly affected by
the average age of the fleet, combustion efficiencies, and the driving strategy in
different traffic conditions in the Delhi metropolitan area.
To tackle the serious challenges of air pollution, the local government in Delhi
has developed a series of initiatives as follows:
1 Scenario Analysis of Low-Carbon Urban Energy System in Asian Cities 11

1.3.1 Fuel Efficiency: Early Adoption of BSES V and BSES

VI Auto Fuel Norms

BSES (Bharat stage emission standards) are emission standards instituted by the
Government of India to regulate the output of air pollutants from internal combus-
tion engines and spark-ignition engine equipment, including motor vehicles. In
2016, the Indian government announced that the country would skip the BS-V
norms altogether and adopt BS-VI norms by 2020 (DieselNet 2017). By moving
to BS-VI, the transport sector of the city of Delhi will use the highest specifications
of fuel standard available in the world (Fig. 1.6).

1.3.2 Battery Vehicle: Promotion of Battery-Operated

Vehicles/EVs

Delhi government through Delhi Pollution Control Committee provides financial

subsidy on newly purchased battery-operated four- and two-wheelers. Financial
subsidy is provided by Delhi Pollution Control Committee from the Air Ambience
Fund, created by levying 25 paisa per liter of diesel (DPCC 2015). Besides onetime
fixed subsidy of 15,000 Rs is also provided to battery-operated e-rickshaw owners,
authorized by the Transport Department and registered with registering authority of
the Transport Department (Table 1.1).

Fig. 1.6 Early adoption of BS-V and BS-VI auto fuel norms

Table 1.1 Financial subsidy for the battery-operated vehicles/EVs

Type of vehicles Cost of vehicles (base price) Subsidy given by Govt. of Delhi (in Rs)
4-wheeler Up to 5 lakhs 30,000/
4-wheeler More than 5 lakhs 1,50,000/
2-wheeler Up to 20,000/ 1000/
2-wheeler 20,001/25,000/ 2000/
2-wheeler More than 25,000/ 5500/
12 H. Farzaneh

1.3.3 Modal Shift: Increasing Ridership in Delhi Metro

With almost 23 hundred thousand passengers using the Delhi Metro network every
day, increasing ridership has been the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s biggest
challenge. Yet it’s also its biggest challenge as trains struggle to keep up with
expanding ridership. At present the total ridership of Delhi Metro is estimated to
be about 25%. While Delhi Metro has been trying to expand its fleet, it is currently in
the process of converting six-coach trains into eight-coach ones on the main line. It
has been planned in Rapid Metrorail Gurgaon with a total length of 11.7 km serving
11 stations. Based on these actions and objectives of the aforesaid initiatives (clean
transport scenario), the model was used to evaluate the GHG emission reduction
potential and the multiple benefits achievable by improving air quality in 2030.
According to the results, modal shift from private modes to the public transport
systems, including the metro, can help reduce energy consumption, CO2 emissions,
and pollution load in the city of Delhi. Figure 1.7 shows the expected GHH emission
reduction from the implementation of the above plans, which is estimated to be about
4.3 million tons in 2030.
The high-quality public transport system in the clean transport scenario can
provide additional benefits besides emission reduction, including improved public
health. As shown in Fig. 1.8, the model predicts that the total amount of harmful gas
emissions, such as SO2, NOX, and PM10, would decline in the clean transport
scenario compared to the baseline scenario by approximately 48%.
Using the mortality rates that were collected for the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare for 2008–2011 (MHFW 2018) and also annual average data for
concentration of SO2, NOX, and PM10, which were derived from continuing
measurement taken in the period of 2008–2011, from five monitoring stations
throughout the Delhi metropolitan area, the estimated annual reductions in the
mortality rate from the clean transport scenario are given in Table 1.2.
According to the results, the annual reduction of cases of mortalities varies from
19,200 (exposure to PM10) to 419 (exposure to SO2) in Delhi in 2030. The larger
numbers for the projected reduction of cases of cardiovascular mortalities imply that
the pollution impact on these cases is more serious than others. Among all pollutants,
the reduction of PM10 plays a significant role in achieving the desired health
outcome.

Fig. 1.7 Future mobility and expected GHH emission reduction in the clean transport scenario
1 Scenario Analysis of Low-Carbon Urban Energy System in Asian Cities 13

Fig. 1.8 Expected co-benefits of local air quality improvement in the clean transport scenario

Table 1.2 Estimated annual health outcomes from the clean transport scenario in 2030
Health outcomes (deaths
prevented/year)
Exposure metric and subgroups SO2 NOX PM10
Total mortality and short-term exposure (all ages) 419 2390 19,200
Cardiovascular mortality and long-term exposure (age >30) 327 1250 12,350
Respiratory mortality and long-term exposure (age >30) 70 950 6513
Respiratory mortality and short-term exposure (age <5) 22 190 337

Implementation of the clean transport scenario in Delhi has direct and indirect
impact on the local economy of this city. Direct effects are changes in sales, income,
or jobs associated with the on-site or immediate effects created by an expenditure or
change in final demand, for example, the employment and wages for workers who
assemble batteries at a manufacturing plant. Indirect effects are changes in sales,
income, or jobs in upstream-linked sectors within the region. These effects result
from the changing input needs in directly affected sectors, for example, increased
employment and wages for workers who supply materials to the battery assemblers.
Induced effects are changes in sales, income, or jobs created by changes in house-
hold, business, or government spending patterns. These effects occur when the
income generated from the direct and indirect effects is re-spent in the local
economy. The cumulative growth of GDP and its absolute employment caused by
the clean transport scenario in Delhi were estimated by the model which is
represented in Fig. 1.9.
14 H. Farzaneh

Fig. 1.9 The cumulative growth of GDP and its absolute employment caused by the clean transport
scenario

1.4 Conclusion

Sustainable transport, particularly in developing countries, is an important element

of climate change policies, which can be integrated into development objectives
such as good health and well-being as well as clean energy and sustainable cities.
While energy saving and controlling GHG emissions and reducing other local
emissions may be a primary goal of LEDS, other benefits also accrue from these
investments. In order to meet both climate protection and other human development
goals, it is important to seek perceptible multiple benefits to justify interventions. In
the urban transport sector, the climate change mitigation actions are usually linked
with the application of clean technologies or behavioral changes by introducing
affordable travel options. However, developing a low-carbon transport system can
bring additional benefits beyond GHG emission reduction, such as improved air
quality and public health as well as reducing traffic congestions, injuries, and noise.
Therefore, analyzing the multiple benefits of climate change mitigation in the urban
transport sector may be high on the agenda of important policy actors, since there is
large potential to introduce the co-benefits approach into ongoing projects and
existing climate change mitigation actions, as exemplified by this study in Delhi,
which suffers from several social, economic, and environmental problems caused by
a poor urban transportation system. This study explored the application of a quan-
titative bottom-up modeling approach, based on an integrated CGE approach, for the
assessment of multiple benefits in the Delhi’s transport sector. Testing the model in
Delhi showed the potential environmental (GHG mitigation and air quality) and
health co-benefits of developing a clean transport scenario for this city. The results
showed that the implementation of the strategic plan in Delhi’s urban transportation
system has GHG emission reduction potential of about 4.3 million tonnes of CO2
with an aggregated reduction of about 0.2 million tonnes of other local air pollutants,
which could prevent about 22,000 cases of mortality and brings more than USD
1850 million per capita by 2030.
1 Scenario Analysis of Low-Carbon Urban Energy System in Asian Cities 15

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models. Écon Int 99:9–26
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ORDER_02.09.2015.pdf
Farzaneh H (2016) Chapter 5: energy. In: Christopher NH Doll, Puppim de Oliveira JA (eds)
Urbanization and climate co-benefits implementation of win-win interventions in cities.
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Chapter 2
Taking a Co-benefits Approach in Asia:
A Comparative Analysis of Barriers
with Recommendations

Bingyu Chiu and Eric Zusman

2.1 Introduction

In 2015, much of the international community welcomed the Paris Agreement and
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These two landmark agreements have
the potential to transform how governments, businesses, and other stakeholders
mitigate climate change and pursue sustainable development for the next
10–15 years. Questions nonetheless persist about the extent to which policymakers
can invest in actions that only mitigate climate change without other development
benefits, as well as the affordability and manageability of working on the SDGs with
169 targets. From both climate mitigation and sustainable development perspectives,
an integrated approach to decisions on climate mitigation and the SDGs appears
useful. Such an approach aims to identify policies and projects that can achieve both
climate mitigation and other development objectives. One kind of integrated
approach that can achieve these multiple goals concentrates on co-benefits.
Co-benefits are the benefits of a single action that mitigates climate change and
meet other development priorities. They are considered important because they offer
decision-makers a second—and possibly more compelling—rationale for mitigating
climate change beyond climate benefits. They have also been associated with
helping to steer climate funds to a number of development priorities. Both of these
logics have led to a fast-growing literature on co-benefits. Much of this published
work has concentrated on quantification of benefits above and beyond reductions in
greenhouse gases (GHGs), especially improvements in local air quality and second-
order effects on public health. While quantification is indeed important—as what
goes uncounted often goes unconsidered—it has become apparent that there are
barriers beyond those related to quantification that can prevent achieving co-benefits,

B. Chiu (*) · E. Zusman

Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Hayama, Japan
e-mail: bingyu.chiu@gmail.com; zusman@iges.or.jp

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 17

H. Farzaneh (ed.), Devising a Clean Energy Strategy for Asian Cities,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0782-9_2
18 B. Chiu and E. Zusman

particularly those related to governance. There have been few studies to date to
closely examine those barriers across a number of cases. The purpose of this chapter
is to fill this gap by drawing upon a collection of co-benefit case studies in five
sectors in Asia (transportation, waste management, biomass/fuel, livelihood, and
energy/industry). The review of these studies aims to discern whether and to what
extent patterns appear in the barriers—especially governance barriers—to achieving
co-benefits.
This chapter found that the most common and easiest way to overcome barriers
involve technologies and their users. The financial challenges, often involving initial
costs for infrastructure, also appeared frequently; financial support from higher-level
governments and/or engagement with the private sector (in the form of public and
private partnerships (PPP)) helped to get past these difficulties. The most common
governance challenges involved stakeholder participation across a wide range of
policy areas. Institutional coordination issues were less common; this may be due to
the project scale of many of the cases. It also suggests a possible correlation between
the barriers and scale that could be explored in future studies.

2.2 Literature Review

The appearance of the term “co-benefits” in the academic literature dates back to the
early 1990s when environmental economists were examining the affordability of
investing in technologies to mitigate climate change. It was at this juncture that some
observers recognized that even with considerable uncertainty surrounding the ben-
efits of mitigating climate change, there were “no regrets” in investing in actions that
could achieve more local and certain environmental and social benefits (Morgenstern
1991). From that realization grew an extensive literature that drew upon energy and
economic models as well as cost-benefit analysis to estimate the favorable impacts
on the development from hypothetical climate policies (often in the form of a carbon
tax) (Pearce 2000). This work was performed initially in developed countries with
most studies indicating that it was cost-effective to control GHGs even without the
consideration of climate benefits. This conclusion was laid out clearly in the Third
Assessment Report (TAR) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) in 2001—the first IPCC report to include a section on co-benefits (IPCC
2001).
Since 2001, research on co-benefits has continued to move in several constructive
directions. Some of that work has concentrated on conceptual issues and definitions.
For example, some have discussed whether co-benefits are the climate benefits of
development actions or the development benefits of climate actions (Miyatsuka and
Zusman 2010). A second useful direction has been the advent of an air pollution
perspective on co-benefits; that perspective concentrates on types of air pollution
that can have warming effects on the climate while degrading local air quality. This
2 Taking a Co-benefits Approach in Asia: A Comparative Analysis of. . . 19

includes many studies on black carbon (Bond et al. 2013). Another direction
involves the application of many of the models in developing countries. This third
direction has accompanied the growing participation of developing countries in the
international climate agreement—and it has brought with it both greater potential for
possible gains and more significant challenges to implementing the recommenda-
tions of co-benefit modeling (Aunan et al. 2004; Mayrhofer and Gupta 2016).
The potential in developing countries reflects the fact that these countries gener-
ally have more development needs and possibly more to gain from actions with
multiple benefits. A clear example is air pollution. Air pollution tends to be more
severe in industrializing countries. Efforts made to mitigate climate change and
control air pollution are likely to have a bigger impact on air quality, leading to
other comparatively greater desirable outcomes (O’Conner 2001). However, it also
tends to be difficult to successfully formulate and implement a policy or project with
co-benefits where they are estimated to be the greatest in magnitude due to a lack of
finance, technology, or governance (Pearce 2000).
The shortcomings in governance may prove particularly problematic. This is
because the very notion of co-benefits implies cooperation across actors who may
or may not be aware of their shared interests. Modeling results may help to more
clearly see overlapping interests, and some have argued for the development of
easier-to-use, streamlined methods and tools for evaluation and incorporation of
co-impacts in environmental decision-making (Ürge-Vorsatz et al. 2014). However,
even if these joint benefits become more apparent, constraints on collaboration may
still stand in their way from acting upon those joint interests. Three sets of barriers
that overlap with the areas highlighted in the introductory chapter merit
consideration.
• The first is intra- or interagency cooperation. At the most fundamental level, it
will be critical that agencies working on climate change and air pollution have the
institutional incentives and cross-agency channels that encourage them to work
together; this cooperation will also be important for several sectoral policies that
also have implications for climate change.
• The second set of barriers involves vertical cooperation across different levels of
government. This is particularly important since, while national governments are
frequently responsible for shaping national responses to climate change, local
governments are increasingly tasked with implementing those actions by forging
links to local development priorities.
• A third set of possible challenges involve engagement with non-state stake-
holders, ranging from the private sector to the general public. Here again,
mechanisms that can constructively engage with stakeholders beyond the state
are essential to getting the public buy-in and resources needed to achieve
climate and development objectives.
20 B. Chiu and E. Zusman

At this point, this listing of barriers is based chiefly on possible inferences on

what may be obstacles to change. To determine whether and to what extent these
barriers actually exist requires a broader examination of actual cases. Further,
because much of the literature has focused on quantifying co-benefits, there have
been few articles looking across multiple cases to see if there are broader patterns in
barriers. Moreover, the studies that have looked more broadly have noted that the
politics and institutional aspects of co-benefits have been largely overlooked (May-
rhofer and Gupta 2016). To more systematically investigate whether and to what
extent the barriers exist, it helps to look at multiple cases where co-benefits existed as
well as at the barriers to their achievement.

2.3 Comparing Cases

To identify barriers to achieving co-benefits, 28 cases were drawn from a Co-benefits

Good Practice Map that is supported by the Asian Co-benefits Partnership (ACP).
The ACP is an informal and interactive platform that was established in 2009 to
promote information sharing and awareness raising on co-benefits in Asia. The
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) serves as the secretariat of
the ACP; funding for the ACP comes chiefly from the Ministry of the Environment,
Japan (MOEJ).
The cases come from ten, mostly developing, countries in Asia (Fig. 2.1):
Bangladesh (1), Cambodia (1), China (5), Indonesia (4), Japan (11), Korea (2),
Lao PDR (1), Nepal (1), Thailand (1), and Vietnam (1). The high proportion of
cases in Japan arguably reflects that IGES is based in Japan and therefore has access
to Japanese language resources needed to develop these cases; it also arguably stems
from the fact that many of Japan’s approach to environmental management aim
upstream in the production process so as to both reduce pollution and save energy
(often with impacts on carbon dioxide (CO2)). The cases also come from a variety of
sectors (Fig. 2.2): transportation (7), waste management (4), biomass/fuel (5),
livelihood (3), and energy/industry (9). The livelihood category refers to projects
or policies that were social benefits such as new jobs or more equitable gender
relations.
2 Taking a Co-benefits Approach in Asia: A Comparative Analysis of. . . 21

Fig. 2.1 Location of the case studies, by country

Fig. 2.2 Sectoral breakdown of the case studies

Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
in his note-book a list of the ladies who, he thought, might be fit
candidates for the honour he intended them, the merits of the
multitude being settled, in his mind, in exact accordance with the
supposed extent of their treasures. Let not the reader mistake the
term. By treasure he neither meant worth nor beauty, but the article
which can be paid down in bullion or in bank-notes, possessing the
magic properties of adding field to field, and tenement to tenement.
One after another the pen was drawn through their names, as
occasion offered of scrutinising their means more clearly, or as lack-
success obliged him, until the candidates were reduced to a couple;
to wit—Miss Jenny Drybones, a tall spinster, lean and ill-looking,
somewhat beyond her grand climacteric; and Mrs Martha Bouncer, a
brisk widow, fat, fair, and a few years on the better side of forty.
Miss Jenny, from her remote youth upwards, had been
housekeeper to her brother, a retired wine merchant, who departed
this life six years before, without occasioning any very general
lamentation; having been a man of exceedingly strict habits of
business, according to the jargon of his friends; that is to say, in plain
English, a keen, dull, plodding, avaricious old knave.
But he was rich, that was one felicity; therefore he had friends. It is
a great pity that such people ever die, as their worth, or, in other
words, their wealth, cannot gain currency in the other world; but die
he did, in spite of twenty thousand pounds and the doctor, who was
not called in till death had a firm grip of the old miser’s windpipe,
through which respiration came scant and slow, almost like the
vacant yawns of a broken bellows.
Expectant friends were staggered, as by a thunder-stroke, when
the read will, too legal for their satisfaction, left Miss Jenny in sure
and undivided possession of goods and chattels all and sundry.
For the regular period she mourned with laudable zeal, displaying
black feathers, quilled ruffles, crape veils, and starched weepers, in
great and unwonted prodigality, which no one objected to, or cavilled
about, solely because no one had any business to do so.
It was evident that her views of life from that era assumed a new
aspect, and the polar winter of her features exhibited something like
an appearance of incipient thaw; but the downy chin, wrinkled brow,
and pinched nose, were still, alas! too visible. Accordingly, it is more
than probable that, instead of renewing her youth like the eagles, she
had only made a bold and laudable attempt to rifacciamento, in thus
lighting up her features with a more frequent and general succession
of smiles.
No one can deny that, in as far as regards externals, Miss Jenny
mourned lugubriously and well, not stinting the usually allotted
number of calendar months. These passed away, and so did black
drapery; garments brightening by progressive but rapid strides. Ere
the twelve months expired, Miss Jenny flaunted about in colours as
gaudy as those of “the tiger-moth’s deep damasked wings,”—the
counterpart of the bird of paradise, the rival of the rainbow.
Widow Martha Bouncer was a lady of a different stamp. Her
features still glowed in the freshness of youthful beauty, though the
symmetry of her person was a little destroyed by a tendency to
corpulency. She dressed well; and there was a liveliness and activity
about her motions, together with an archness in her smile, which
captivated the affections of the tobacconist, rather more than was
compatible with his known and undisguised hankering after the so-
called good things of this life, the flesh-pots of Egypt.
Mrs Bouncer was the widow of a captain in a marching regiment;
consequently she had seen a good deal of the world, and had a
budget of adventures ever open for the admiration of the listening
customer. Sometimes it might even be objected, that her tongue went
a little too glibly; but she had a pretty face and a musical voice, and
seldom failed in being attended to.
The captain did not, as his profession might lead us to surmise,
decamp to the other world, after having swallowed a bullet, and
dropped the death-dealing blade from his blood-besmeared hand on
the field of battle, but quietly in his bed, with three pairs of excellent
blankets over him, not reckoning a curiously quilted counterpane.
Long anticipation lessens the shock of fate; consequently the grief of
his widow was not of that violent and overwhelming kind which a
more sharply-wound-up catastrophe is apt to occasion; but, having
noticed the slow but gradual approaches of the grim tyrant, in the
symptoms of swelled ankles, shrivelled features, troublesome cough,
and excessive debility, the event came upon her as an evil long
foreseen; and the sorrow occasioned by the exit of the captain was
sustained with becoming fortitude.
 Having been fully as free of his sacrifices to Bacchus as to the
brother of Bellona, the captain left his mate in circumstances not the
most flourishing; but she was enabled to keep up appearances, and
to preserve herself from the gulf of debt, by an annuity bequeathed to
her by her father, and by the liberality of the widows’ fund.
Time passed on at its usual careless jog-trot; and animal spirits,
being a gift of nature, like all strong natural impulses, asserted their
legitimate sway. Mrs Martha began to smile and simper as formerly.
Folks remarked, that black suited her complexion; and Daniel Cathie
could not help giving breath to the gallant remark, as he was
discharging her last year’s account, that he never before had seen her
looking half so well.
On this hint the lady wrought. Daniel was a greasy lubberly civilian
to be sure, and could not escort her about with powdered collar,
laced beaver, and glittering epaulettes; but he was a substantial
fellow, not amiss as to looks, and with regard to circumstances,
possessing everything to render a wife comfortable and snug. Elysian
happiness, Mrs Martha was too experienced a stager to expect on
this side of the valley of death. Moreover, she had been tossed about
sufficiently in the world, and was heartily tired of a wandering life.
The height of her wise ambition, therefore, reached no higher than a
quiet settlement and a comfortable domicile. She knew that the hour
of trial was come, and sedulously set herself to work, directing
against Daniel the whole artillery of her charms. She passed before
his door every morning in her walk; and sometimes stood with her
pretty face directed to the shop window, as if narrowly examining
some article in it. She ogled him as he sat in church; looking as if she
felt happy at seeing him seated with the bailies; and Daniel was never
met abroad, but the lady drew off her silken glove, and yielded a
milk-white delicate hand to the tobacconist, who took a peculiar
pleasure in shaking it cordially. A subsequent rencontre in a stage
coach, where they enjoyed a delightful téte-à-téte together for some
miles (procul, ô procul esto profani), told with a still deeper effect;
and everything seemed in a fair way of being amicably adjusted.
Miss Jenny, undismayed by these not unmarked symptoms of
ripening intimacy, determined to pursue her own line of amatory
politics, and set her whole enginery of attack in readiness for
operation. She had always considered the shop at the cross as the
surest path for her to the temple of Bona Fortuna. Thence driven, she
was lost in hopeless mazes, and knew not where to turn.
She flaunted about, and flashed her finery in the optical observers
of Daniel, as if to say, This is a specimen,—ex uno disce omnes,—
thousands lie under this sample. Hope and fear swayed her heart by
turns, though the former passion was uppermost; yet she saw a
snake, in the form of Mrs Bouncer, lurking in her way; and she took
every lawful means, or such as an inamorata considers such, to
scotch it.
Well might Daniel be surprised at the quantity of candles made use
of in Miss Jenny’s establishment. It puzzled his utmost calculation;
for though the whole house had been illuminated from top to
bottom, and fours to the pound had been lighted at both ends, no
such quantity could be consumed. But there she was, week after
week, with her young vassal with the yellow neck behind her,
swinging a large wicker-basket over his arm, in which were
deposited, layer above layer, the various produce of Miss Jenny’s
marketing.
On Daniel, on these occasions, she showered her complaisance
with the liberality of March rains; inquiring anxiously after his
health; cautioning him to wear flannel, and beware of the
rheumatics; telling him her private news, and admiring the elegance
of his articles, while all the time her shrivelled features “grinned
horrible a ghastly smile,” which only quadrupled the “fold upon fold
innumerable” of her wrinkles, and displayed gums innocent of teeth,
—generosity not being able to elevate three rusty stumps to that
honour and dignity.
There was a strong conflict in Daniel’s mind, and the poor man
was completely “bamboozled.” Ought he to let nature have its sway
for once, take to his arms the blushing and beautiful widow, and
trust to the success of his efforts for future aggrandisement? Or must
strong habit still domineer over him, and Miss Jenny’s hook, baited
with twenty thousand pounds, draw him to the shores of wedlock, “a
willing captive?” Must he leave behind him sons and daughters with
small portions, and “the world before them, where to choose;” or
none—and his name die away among the things of the past, while
cousins ten times removed alike in blood and regard, riot on his
substance? The question was complicated, and different
interrogatories put to the oracle of his mind afforded different
responses. The affair was one, in every respect, so nicely balanced,
that “he wist not what to do.” Fortune long hung equal in the
balance, and might have done so much longer, had not an unforeseen
accident made the scale of the widow precipitately mount aloft, and
kick the beam.
It was about ten o’clock on the night of a blustering November day,
that a tall, red-haired, moustachioed, and raw-boned personage,
wrapt up in a military great-coat, alighted from the top of the
Telegraph at the Salutation Inn, and delivered his portmanteau into
the assiduous hands of Bill the waiter. He was ushered into a
comfortable room, whose flickering blazing fire mocked the
cacophony of his puckered features, and induced him hastily to doff
his envelopments, and draw in an arm-chair to the borders of the
hearthrug.
Having discussed a smoking and substantial supper, he asked Bill,
who was in the act of supplying his rummer with hot water, if a Mrs
Bouncer, an officer’s widow, resided in the neighbourhood.
“Yes,” replied Bill, “I know her well; she lives at third house round
the corner, on the second floor, turning to the door on your right
hand.”
“She is quite well, I hope?” asked the son of Mars.
“Oh! quite well, bless you; and about to take a second husband. I
hear they are to be proclaimed next week. She is making a good
bargain.”
“Next week to be married!” ejaculated the gallant captain, turning
up his eyes, and starting to his legs with a hurried perplexity.
“So I believe, sir,” continued Bill very calmly. “If you have come to
the ceremony, you will find that it does not take place till then.
Depend upon it, sir, you have mistaken the date of your invitation
card.”
“Well, waiter, you may leave me,” said the captain, stroking his
chin in evident embarrassment; “but stop, who is she about to get?”
“Oh, I thought everybody knew Mr Daniel Cathie, one of the town-
council, sir; a tobacconist, and a respectable man; likely soon to
come to the provostry, sir. He is rather up in years to be sure; but he
is as rich as a Jew.”
 “What do you say is his name?”
“Daniel Cathie, Esq., tobacconist, and a candlemaker near the
Cross. That is his name and designation,—a very respectable man,
sir.”
“Well, order the girl to have my bed well warmed, and to put pens,
ink, and paper into the room. In the meantime, bring me the boot-
jack.”
The captain kept his fiery feelings in restraint before Bill; but the
intelligence hit him like a cannon-shot. He retired almost
immediately to his bed-chamber; but a guest in the adjoining room
declared in the morning, that he had never been allowed to close his
eyes, from some person’s alternately snoring or speaking in his sleep,
as if in violent altercation with some one; and that, whenever these
sounds died away, they were only exchanged for the irregular tread
of a foot measuring the apartment, seemingly in every direction.
It was nine in the morning; and Daniel, as he was ringing a shilling
on the counter, which he had just taken for “value received,” and half
ejaculating aloud as he peered at it through his spectacles—“Not a
Birmingham, I hope”—had a card put into his hand by Jonas
Bunting, the Salutation shoeblack.
Having broken the seal, Daniel read to himself,—“A gentleman
wishes to see Mr Cathie at the Salutation Inn, on particular business,
as speedily as possible. Inquire for the gentleman in No. 7.—A
quarter before nine, A.M.”
“Some of these dunning travellers!” exclaimed Daniel to himself.
“They are continually pestering me for orders. If I had the lighting up
of the moon, I could not satisfy them all. I have a good mind not to
go, for this fellow not sending his name. It is impudence with a
vengeance, and a new way of requesting favours!” As he was
muttering these thoughts between his teeth, however, he was
proceeding in the almost unconscious act of undoing his apron,
which having flung aside, he adjusted his hair before the glass,
carefully pressed his hat into shape, and drew it down on his temples
with both hands; after which, with hasty steps, he vanished from
behind the counter.
Arriving at the inn, he was ushered into No. 7 by the officious Bill,
who handed his name before him, and closed the door after him.
 “This is an unpleasant business, Mr Cathie,” said the swaggering
captain, drawing himself up to his full length, and putting on a look
of important ferocity. “It is needless to waste words on the subject:
there is a brace of pistols, both are loaded,—take one, and I take the
other; choose either, sir. The room is fully eight paces,” added he,
striding across in a hurried manner, and clanking his iron heels on
the carpet.
“It would, I think, be but civil,” said Daniel, evidently in
considerable mental as well as bodily agitation, “to inform me what
are your intentions, before forcing me to commit murder. Probably
you have mistaken me for some other; if not, please let me know in
what you conceive I have offended you!”
“By the powers!” said Captain Thwackeray with great vehemence,
“you have injured me materially,—nay, mortally,—and either your
life, sir, or my own, sir, shall be sacrificed to the adjustment.”
While saying this, the captain took up first the one pistol, and then
the other, beating down the contents with the ramrod, and
measuring with his finger the comparative depth to which each was
loaded.
“A pretty story, certainly, to injure a gentleman in the tenderest
part, and then to beg a recital of the particulars. Have you no regard
for my feelings, sir?”
“Believe me, sir, on the word of an honest man, that as to your
meaning in this business, I am in utter darkness,” said Daniel with
cool firmness.
“To be plain, then,—to be explicit,—to come to the point, sir,—are
you not on the eve of marrying Mrs Bouncer?”
“Mrs Bouncer!” echoed the tallow-chandler, starting back, and
crimsoning. Immediately, however, commanding himself, he
continued:—“As to the truth of the case, that is another matter; but
were it as you represent it, I was unaware that I could be injuring any
one in so doing.”
“Now, sir, we have come to the point; rem tetigisti acu; and you
speak out plainly. Take your pistol,” bravoed the captain.
“No, no,—not so fast;—perhaps we may understand each other
without being driven to that alternative.”
 “Well then, sir, abjure her this moment, and resign her to me, or
one of our lives must be sacrificed.”
While he was saying this, Daniel laid his hands on one of the
pistols, and appeared as if examining it; which motion the captain
instantly took for a signal of acquiescence, and “changed his hand,
and checked his pride.”
“I hope,” continued he, evidently much softened, “that there shall
be no need of resorting to desperate measures. In a word, the affair is
this:—I have a written promise from Mrs Bouncer, that, if ever she
married a second time, her hand was mine. It matters not with the
legality of the measure, though the proceeding took place in the
lifetime of her late husband, my friend, Captain Bouncer. It is quite
an affair of honour. I assure you, sir, she has vowed to accept of none
but me, Captain Thwackeray, as his successor. If you have paid your
addresses to her in ignorance of this, I forgive you; if not, we stand
opposed as before.”
“Oh ho! if that be the way the land lies,” replied Daniel, with a
shrill whistle, “she is yours, captain, for me, and heartily welcome. I
resign her unconditionally, as you military gentlemen phrase it. A
great deal of trouble is spared by one’s speaking out. If you had told
me this, there would have been no reason for loading the pistols.
May I now wish you a good morning! ’Od save us! but these are
fearful weapons on the table! Good morning, sir.”
“Bless your heart, no,” said Captain Thwackeray, evidently much
relieved from his distressing situation. “Oh no, sir; not before we
breakfast together;” and, so saying, before Daniel had a moment’s
time for reply, he pulled the bell violently.
“Bill, bring in breakfast for two, as expeditiously as possible—(Exit
Bill). I knew that no man of honour, such as I know or believe you to
be (your appearance bespeaks it), would act such a selfish part as
deprive me of my legal right; and I trust that this transaction shall
not prevent friendly intercourse between us, if I come, as my present
intention is, to take up my abode among you in this town.”
“By no means,” said Daniel; “Mrs Bouncer is yours for me; and as
to matrimonials, I am otherwise provided. There are no grounds for
contention, captain.”
 Breakfast was discussed with admirable appetite by both. The
contents of the pistols were drawn, the powder carefully returned
into the flask, the two bullets into the waistcoat pocket, and the
instruments of destruction themselves deposited in a green woollen
case. After cordially shaking each other by the hand, the captain saw
Mr Daniel to the door, and made a very low congé, besides kissing
his hand at parting.
The captain we leave to fight his own battles, and return to our
hero, whose stoicism, notwithstanding its firmness, did not prevent
him from feeling considerably on the occasion. Towards Mrs
Bouncer he had not a Romeo-enthusiasm, but certainly a stronger
attachment than he had ever experienced for any other of her sex.
Though the case was hopeless, he did not allow himself to pine away
with “a green and yellow melancholy,” but reconciled himself to his
fate with the more facility, as the transaction between Thwackeray
and her was said to have taken place during the lifetime of her late
husband, which considerably lessened her in his estimation; having
been educated a rigid Presbyterian, and holding in great abhorrence
all such illustrations of military morality. “No, no,” thought he; “my
loss is more apparent than real: the woman who was capable of
doing such a thing, would not content herself with stopping even
there. Miss Jenny Drybones is the woman for me—I am the man for
her money.” And here a thousand selfish notions crowded on his
heart, and confirmed him in his determination, which he set about
without delay.
There was little need of delicacy in the matter; and Daniel went to
work quite in a business-like style. He commenced operations on the
offensive, offered Miss Jenny his arm, squeezed her hand, buttered
her with love-phrases, ogled her out of countenance, and haunted
her like a ghost. Refusal was in vain; and after a faint, a feeble, and
sham show of resistance, the damsel drew down her flag of defiance,
and submitted to honourable terms of capitulation.
Ten days after Miss Jenny’s surrender, their names were
proclaimed in church; and as the people stared at each other in half
wonder and half good-humour, the precentor continued, after a
slight pause, “There is also a purpose of marriage between Mrs
Martha Bouncer, at present residing in the parish, and Augustus
Thwackeray, Esq., captain of the Bengal Rangers; whoever can
produce any lawful objections against the same, he is requested to do
so, time and place convenient.”
Every forenoon and evening between that and the marriage-day,
Daniel and his intended enjoyed a delightful tête-à-tête in the lady’s
garden, walking arm-in-arm, and talking, doubtless, of home-
concerns and Elysian prospects that awaited them. The pair would
have formed a fit subject for the pencil of a Hogarth,—about “to
become one flesh,” and so different in appearance. The lady, long-
visaged and wrinkled, stiff-backed and awkward, long as a maypole;
the bridegroom, jolly-faced like Bacchus, stumpy like an alder-tree,
and round as a beer-barrel.
Ere Friday had beheld its meridian sunshine, two carriages, drawn
up at the door, the drivers with white favours and Limerick gloves,
told the attentive world that Dr Redbeak had made them one flesh.
Shortly after the ceremony, the happy couple drove away amid the
cheering of an immense crowd of neighbours, who had planted
themselves round the door to make observations on what was going
on. Another coincidence worthy of remark also occurred on this
auspicious day. At the same hour, had the fair widow Martha yielded
up her lily-white hand to the whiskered, ferocious-looking, but
gallant Captain Thwackeray; and the carriages containing the
respective marriage-parties passed one another in the street at a
good round pace. The postilions, with their large flaunting ribbon-
knots, huzza’d in meeting, brandishing their whips in the air, as if
betokening individual victory. The captain looking out, saw Miss
Jenny, in maiden pride, sitting stately beside her chosen tobacconist;
and Daniel, glancing to the left, beheld Mrs Martha blushing by the
side of her moustachioed warrior. Both waved their hands in passing,
and pursued their destinies.—Janus; or, the Edinburgh Literary
Almanac.
 THE HAUNTED SHIPS.

By Allan Cunningham.
Though my mind’s not
Hoodwinked with rustic marvels, I do think
There are more things in the grove, the air, the flood,
Yea, and the charnelled earth, than what wise man,
Who walks so proud as if his form alone
Filled the wide temple of the universe,
Will let a frail mind say. I’d write i’ the creed
O’ the sagest head alive, that fearful forms,
Holy or reprobate, do page men’s heels;
That shapes, too horrid for our gaze, stand o’er
The murderer’s dust, and for revenge glare up,
Even till the stars weep fire for very pity.

Chapter I.
Along the sea of Solway—romantic on the Scottish side, with its
woodlands, its bays, its cliffs, and headlands; and interesting on the
English side, with its many beautiful towns with their shadows on
the water, rich pastures, safe harbours, and numerous ships—there
still linger many traditional stories of a maritime nature, most of
them connected with superstitions singularly wild and unusual. To
the curious, these tales afford a rich fund of entertainment, from the
many diversities of the same story; some dry and barren, and
stripped of all the embellishments of poetry; others dressed out in all
the riches of a superstitious belief and haunted imagination. In this
they resemble the inland traditions of the peasants; but many of the
oral treasures of the Galwegian or the Cumbrian coast have the
stamp of the Dane and the Norseman upon them, and claim but a
remote or faint affinity with the legitimate legends of Caledonia.
Something like a rude prosaic outline of several of the most noted of
the northern ballads—the adventures and depredations of the old
ocean kings—still lend life to the evening tale; and, among others, the
story of the Haunted Ships is still popular among the maritime
peasantry.
One fine harvest evening I went on board the shallop of Richard
Faulder, of Allanbay, and committing ourselves to the waters, we
allowed a gentle wind from the east to waft us at its pleasure towards
the Scottish coast. We passed the sharp promontory of Siddick, and
skirting the land within a stone-cast, glided along the shore till we
came within sight of the ruined Abbey of Sweetheart. The green
mountain of Criffell ascended beside us; and the bleat of the flocks
from its summit, together with the winding of the evening horn of
the reapers, came softened into something like music over land and
sea. We pushed our shallop into a deep and wooded bay, and sat
silently looking on the serene beauty of the place. The moon
glimmered in her rising through the tall shafts of the pines of
Caerlaverock; and the sky, with scarce a cloud, showered down on
wood, and headland, and bay, the twinkling beams of a thousand
stars, rendering every object visible. The tide, too, was coming with
that swift and silent swell observable when the wind is gentle; the
woody curves along the land were filling with the flood, till it touched
the green branches of the drooping trees; while in the centre current
the roll and the plunge of a thousand pellecks told to the experienced
fisherman that salmon were abundant.
As we looked, we saw an old man emerging from a path that
winded to the shore through a grove of doddered hazel; he carried a
halve-net on his back, while behind him came a girl bearing a small
harpoon, with which the fishers are remarkably dexterous in striking
their prey. The senior seated himself on a large gray stone, which
overlooked the bay, laid aside his bonnet, and submitted his bosom
and neck to the refreshing sea breeze; and taking his harpoon from
his attendant, sat with the gravity and composure of a spirit of the
flood, with his ministering nymph behind him. We pushed our
shallop to the shore, and soon stood at their side.
“This is old Mark Macmoran, the mariner, with his granddaughter
Barbara,” said Richard Faulder, in a whisper that had something of
fear in it; “he knows every creek, and cavern, and quicksand in
Solway,—has seen the Spectre Hound that haunts the Isle of Man;
has heard him bark, and at every bark has seen a ship sink; and he
has seen, too, the Haunted Ships in full sail; and, if all tales be true,
has sailed in them himself;—he’s an awful person.”
Though I perceived in the communication of my friend something
of the superstition of the sailor, I could not help thinking that
common rumour had made a happy choice in singling out old Mark
to maintain her intercourse with the invisible world. His hair, which
seemed to have refused all acquaintance with the comb, hung matted
upon his shoulders; a kind of mantle, or rather blanket, pinned with
a wooden skewer round his neck, fell mid-leg down, concealing all
his nether garments as far as a pair of hose, darned with yarn of all
conceivable colours, and a pair of shoes, patched and repaired till
nothing of the original structure remained, and clasped on his feet
with two massive silver buckles.
If the dress of the old man was rude and sordid, that of his
granddaughter was gay, and even rich.
She wore a boddice of fine wool, wrought round the bosom with
alternate leaf and lily, and a kirtle of the same fabric, which almost
touching her white and delicate ankle, showed her snowy feet, so
fairy-light and round that they scarcely seemed to touch the grass
where she stood. Her hair—a natural ornament which woman seeks
much to improve—was of a bright glossy brown, and encumbered
rather than adorned with a snood, set thick with marine productions,
among which the small clear pearl found in the Solway was
conspicuous. Nature had not trusted to a handsome shape, and a
sylph-like air, for young Barbara’s influence over the heart of man;
but had bestowed a pair of large bright blue eyes, swimming in liquid
light, so full of love, and gentleness, and joy, that all the sailors, from
Annanwater to far St Bees, acknowledged their power, and sung
songs about the bonnie lass of Mark Macmoran. She stood holding a
small gaff-hook of polished steel in her hand, and seemed not
dissatisfied with the glances I bestowed on her from time to time,
and which I held more than requited by a single glance of those eyes
which retained so many capricious hearts in subjection.
The tide, though rapidly augmenting, had not yet filled the bay at
our feet. The moon now streamed fairly over the tops of Caerlaverock
pines, and showed the expanse of ocean dimpling and swelling, on
which sloops and shallops came dancing, and displaying at every
turn their extent of white sail against the beam of the moon. I looked
on old Mark the Mariner, who, seated motionless on his gray stone,
kept his eye fixed on the increasing waters with a look of seriousness
and sorrow in which I saw little of the calculating spirit of a mere
fisherman. Though he looked on the coming tide, his eyes seemed to
dwell particularly on the black and decayed hulls of two vessels,
which, half immersed in the quicksand, still addressed to every heart
a tale of shipwreck and desolation. The tide wheeled and foamed
around them; and creeping inch by inch up the side, at last fairly
threw its waters over the top, and a long and hollow eddy showed the
resistance which the liquid element received.
The moment they were fairly buried in the water, the old man
clasped his hands together, and said—
“Blessed be the tide that will break over and bury ye for ever! Sad
to mariners, and sorrowful to maids and mothers, has the time been
you have choked up this deep and bonnie bay. For evil were you sent,
and for evil have you continued. Every season finds from you its song
of sorrow and wail, its funeral processions, and its shrouded corses.
Woe to the land where the wood grew that made ye? Cursed be the
axe that hewed ye on the mountains, the bands that joined ye
together, the bay that ye first swam in, and the wind that wafted ye
here! Seven times have ye put my life in peril; three fair sons have ye
swept from my side, and two bonnie grandbairns; and now, even
now, your waters foam and flash for my destruction, did I venture
my frail limbs in quest of food in your deadly bay. I see by that ripple
and that foam, and hear by the sound and singing of your surge, that
ye yearn for another victim, but it shall not be me or mine.”
Even as the old mariner addressed himself to the wrecked ships, a
young man appeared at the southern extremity of the bay, holding
his halve-net in his hand, and hastening into the current. Mark rose,
and shouted, and waved him back from a place which, to a person
unacquainted with the dangers of the bay, real and superstitious,
seemed sufficiently perilous: his granddaughter, too, added her voice
to his, and waved her white hands; but the more they strove the
faster advanced the peasant, till he stood to his middle in the water,
while the tide increased every moment in depth and strength.
“Andrew, Andrew!” cried the young woman, in a voice quavering
with emotion, “turn, turn, I tell you. O the ships, the haunted ships!”
But the appearance of a fine run of fish had more influence with the
peasant than the voice of bonnie Barbara, and forward he dashed,
net in hand. In a moment he was borne off his feet, and mingled like
foam with the water, and hurried towards the fatal eddies which
whirled and reared round the sunken ships. But he was a powerful
young man, and an expert swimmer: he seized on one of the
projecting ribs of the nearest hulk, and clinging to it with the grasp of
despair, uttered yell after yell, sustaining himself against the
prodigious rush of the current.
From a sheiling of turf and straw within the pitch of a bar from the
spot where we stood, came out an old woman bent with age, and
leaning on a crutch. “I heard the voice of that lad Andrew Lammie;
can the chield be drowning, that he skirls sae uncannily?” said the
old woman, seating herself on the ground and looking earnestly at
the water. “Ou ay,” she continued, “he’s doomed, he’s doomed; heart
and hand never can save him; boats, ropes, and man’s strength and
wit, all vain! vain! he’s doomed, he’s doomed!”
By this time I had thrown myself into the shallop, followed
reluctantly by Richard Faulder, over whose courage and kindness of
heart superstition had great power; and with one push from the
shore, and some exertion in sculling, we came within a quoit-cast of
the unfortunate fisherman. He stayed not to profit by our aid; for
when he perceived us near, he uttered a piercing shriek of joy, and
bounded toward us through the agitated element the full length of an
oar. I saw him for a second on the surface of the water; but the
eddying current sucked him down; and all I ever beheld of him again
was his hand held above the flood, and clutching in agony at some
imaginary aid. I sat gazing in horror on the vacant sea before us; but
a breathing-time before, a human being, full of youth, and strength,
and hope, was there: his cries were still ringing in my ears, and
echoing in the woods; and now nothing was seen or heard save the
turbulent expanse of water, and the sound of its chafing on the
shores. We pushed back our shallop, and resumed our station on the
cliff beside the old mariner and his descendant.
“Wherefore sought ye to peril your own lives fruitlessly,” said
Mark, “in attempting to save the doomed? Whoso touches these
infernal ships never survives to tell the tale. Woe to the man who is
found nigh them at midnight when the tide has subsided, and they
arise in their former beauty, with forecastle, and deck, and sail, and
pennon, and shroud! Then is seen the streaming of lights along the
water from their cabin windows, and then is heard the sound of
mirth and the clamour of tongues and the infernal whoop and halloo,
and song, ringing far and wide. Woe to the man who comes nigh
them!”
To all this my companion listened with a breathless attention. I felt
something touched with a superstition to which I partly believed I
had seen one victim offered up; and I inquired of the old mariner—
“How and when came these haunted ships there? To me they seem
but the melancholy relics of some unhappy voyagers, and much more
likely to warn people to shun destruction, than entice and delude
them to it.”
“And so,” said the old man with a smile, which had more of sorrow
in it than of mirth; “and so, young man, these black and shattered
hulks seem to the eye of the multitude. But things are not what they
seem: that water, a kind and convenient servant to the wants of man,
which seems so smooth, and so dimpling, and so gentle, has
swallowed up a human soul even now; and the place which it covers,
so fair and so level, is a faithless quicksand out of which none escape.
Things are otherwise than they seem. Had you lived as long as I have
had the sorrow to live; had you seen the storms, and braved the
perils, and endured the distresses which have befallen me; had you
sat gazing out on the dreary ocean at midnight on a haunted coast;
had you seen comrade after comrade, brother after brother, and son
after son, swept away by the merciless ocean from your very side;
had you seen the shapes of friends, doomed to the wave and the
quicksand, appearing to you in the dreams and visions of the night;
then would your mind have been prepared for crediting the strange
legends of mariners; and the two haunted Danish ships would have
had their terrors for you, as they have for all who sojourn on this
coast.
“Of the time and cause of their destruction,” continued the old
man, “I know nothing certain; they have stood as you have seen them
for uncounted time; and while all other ships wrecked on this
unhappy coast have gone to pieces, and rotted, and sunk away in a
few years, these two haunted hulks have neither sunk in the
quicksand, nor has a single spar or board been displaced. Maritime
legend says, that two ships of Denmark having had permission, for a
time, to work deeds of darkness and dolour on the deep, were at last
condemned to the whirlpool and the sunken rock, and were wrecked
in this bonnie bay, as a sign to seamen to be gentle and devout. The
night when they were lost was a harvest evening of uncommon
mildness and beauty: the sun had newly set; the moon came brighter
and brighter out; and the reapers, laying their sickles at the root of
the standing corn, stood on rock and bank, looking at the increasing
magnitude of the waters, for sea and land were visible from St Bees
to Barnhourie.
“The sails of the two vessels were soon seen bent for the Scottish
coast; and with a speed outrunning the swiftest ship, they
approached the dangerous quicksands and headland of Borranpoint.
On the deck of the foremost ship not a living soul was seen, or shape,
unless something in darkness and form resembling a human shadow
could be called a shape, which flitted from extremity to extremity of
the ship, with the appearance of trimming the sails, and directing the
vessel’s course. But the decks of its companion were crowded with
human shapes; the captain, and mate, and sailor, and cabin boy, all
seemed there; and from them the sound of mirth and minstrelsy
echoed over land and water. The coast which they skirted along was
one of extreme danger; and the reapers shouted to warn them to
beware of sandbank and rock; but of this friendly counsel no notice
was taken, except that a large and famished dog, which sat on the
prow, answered every shout with a long, loud, and melancholy howl.
The deep sandbank of Carsethorn was expected to arrest the career
of these desperate navigators; but they passed, with the celerity of
waterfowl, over an obstruction which had wrecked many pretty
ships.
“Old men shook their heads, and departed, saying, ‘We have seen
the fiend sailing in a bottomless ship; let us go home and pray:’ but
one young and wilful man said, ‘Fiend! I’ll warrant it’s nae fiend, but
douce Janet Withershins, the witch, holding a carouse with some of
her Cumberland cummers, and mickle red wine will be spilt atween
them. ’Od, I would gladly have a toothfu’! I’ll warrant it’s nane o’
your cauld sour slae-water, like a bottle of Bailie Skrinkie’s port, but
right drap-o’-my-heart’s-blood stuff, that would waken a body out of
their last linen. I wonder whaur the cummers will anchor their craft?’
“‘And I’ll vow,’ said another rustic, ‘the wine they quaff is none of
your visionary drink, such as a drouthy body has dished out to his
lips in a dream; nor is it shadowy and unsubstantial, like the vessels
they sail in, which are made out of a cockle-shell, or a cast-off
slipper, or the paring of a seaman’s right thumb-nail. I once got a
handsel out of a witch’s quaigh myself;—auld Marion Mathers of
Dustiefoot, whom they tried to bury in the old kirkyard of Dunscore;
but the cummer raise as fast as they laid her down, and naewhere
else would she lie but in the bonnie green kirkyard of Kier, among
douce and sponsible folk. So I’ll vow that the wine of a witch’s cup is
as fell liquor as ever did a kindly turn to a poor man’s heart; and be
they fiends, or be they witches, if they have red wine asteer, I’ll risk a
droukit sark for ae glorious tout on’t.’
“‘Silence, ye sinners,’ said the minister’s son of a neighbouring
parish, who united in his own person his father’s lack of devotion
with his mother’s love of liquor. ‘Whisht! Speak as if ye had the fear
of something holy before ye. Let the vessels run their own way to
destruction: who can stay the eastern wind, and the current of the
Solway sea? I can find ye Scripture warrant for that: so let them try
their strength on Blawhooly rocks, and their might on the broad
quicksand. There’s a surf running there would knock the ribs
together of a galley built by the imps of the pit, and commanded by
the Prince of Darkness. Bonnily and bravely they sail away there; but
before the blast blows by they’ll be wrecked; and red wine and strong
brandy will be as rife as dykewater, and we’ll drink the health of
bonnie Bell Blackness out of her left foot slipper.’
“The speech of the young profligate was applauded by several of
his companions, and away they flew to the bay of Blawhooly, from
whence they never returned. The two vessels were observed all at
once to stop in the bosom of the bay, on the spot where their hulls
now appear: the mirth and the minstrelsy waxed louder than ever;
and the forms of the maidens, with instruments of music and wine-
cups in their hands, thronged the decks. A boat was lowered; and the
same shadowy pilot who conducted the ships made it start towards
the shore with the rapidity of lightning, and its head knocked against
the bank where the four young men stood, who longed for the
unblest drink. They leaped in with a laugh, and with a laugh were
they welcomed on deck; wine cups were given to each, and as they
raised them to their lips the vessels melted away beneath their feet;
and one loud shriek, mingled with laughter still louder, was heard
over land and water for many miles. Nothing more was heard or seen
till the morning, when the crowd who came to the beach saw with
fear and wonder the two Haunted Ships, such as they now seem,
masts and tackle gone; nor mark, nor sign, by which their name,
country, or destination, could be known, was left remaining. Such is
the tradition of the mariners.”
 Chapter II.
“And trow ye,” said the old woman, who, attracted from her hut by
the drowning cries of the young fisherman, had remained an auditor
of the mariner’s legend; “and trow ye, Mark Macmoran, that the tale
of the Haunted Ships is done? I can say no to that. Mickle have my
ears heard, but more mine eyes have witnessed since I came to dwell
in this humble home by the side of the deep sea. I mind the night
weel: it was on Hallow-e’en, the nuts were cracked, and the apples
were eaten, and spell and charm were tried at my fireside; till,
wearied with diving into the dark waves of futurity, the lads and
lasses fairly took to the more visible blessings of kind words, tender
clasps, and gentle courtship.
“Soft words in a maiden’s ear, and a kindly kiss o’ her lip, were old
world matters to me, Mark Macmoran; though I mean not to say that
I have been free of the folly of daundering and daffin’ with a youth in
my day, and keeping tryst with him in dark and lonely places.
However, as I say, these times of enjoyment were past and gone with
me; the mair’s the pity that pleasure should flee sae fast away,—and
as I couldna make sport I thought I would not mar any; so out I
sauntered into the fresh cold air, and sat down behind that old oak,
and looked abroad on the wide sea. I had my ain sad thoughts, ye
may think, at the time; it was in that very bay my blythe gudeman
perished, with seven more in his company; and on that very bank
where ye see the waves leaping and foaming, I saw seven stately
corses streeked, but the dearest was the eighth. It was a woful sight
to me, a widow, with four bonnie boys, with nought to support them
but these twa hands, and God’s blessing, and a cow’s grass. I have
never liked to live out of sight of this bay since that time; and mony’s
the moonlight night I sit looking on these watery mountains, and
these waste shores; it does my heart good, whatever it may do to my
head. So ye see it was Hallow-e’en; and looking on sea and land sat I;
and my heart wandering to other thoughts soon made me forget my
youthful company at hame. It might be near the howe hour of the
night; the tide was making, and its singing brought strange old-world
stories with it; and I thought on the dangers that sailors endure, the