h a character stood by the sideboard of a nobleman of the first
rank in Scotland, and occasionally mixed in the conversation, till he
carried the joke rather too far, in making proposals to one of the young
ladies of the family, and publishing the bans betwixt her and himself in
the public church.

NOTE 9

After the Revolution of 1688, and on some occasions when the spirit of
the Presbyterians had been unusually animated against their opponents,
the Episcopal clergymen, who were chiefly nonjurors, were exposed to be
mobbed, as we should now say, or rabbled, as the phrase then went, to
expiate their political heresies. But notwithstanding that the
Presbyterians had the persecution in Charles II and his brother's time to
exasperate them, there was little mischief done beyond the kind of petty
violence mentioned in the text.

NOTE 10

I may here mention that the fashion of compotation described in the text
was still occasionally practised in Scotland in the author's youth. A
company, after having taken leave of their host, often went to finish the
evening at the clachan or village, in 'womb of tavern.' Their entertainer
always accompanied them to take the stirrup-cup, which often occasioned a
long and late revel.

The poculum potatorium of the valiant Baron, his blessed Bear, has a
prototype at the fine old Castle of Glamis, so rich in memorials of
ancient times; it is a massive beaker of silver, double gilt, moulded
into the shape of a lion, and holding about an English pint of wine. The
form alludes to the family name of Strathmore, which is Lyon, and, when
exhibited, the cup must necessarily be emptied to the Earl's health. The
author ought perhaps to be ashamed of recording that he has had the
honour of swallowing the contents of the Lion; and the recollection of
the feat served to suggest the story of the Bear of Bradwardine. In the
family of Scott of Thirlestane (not Thirlestane in the Forest, but the
place of the same name in Roxburghshire) was long preserved a cup of the
same kind, in the form of a jack-boot. Each guest was obliged to empty
this at his departure. If the guest's name was Scott, the necessity was
doubly imperative.

When the landlord of an inn presented his guests with deoch an doruis,
that is, the drink at the door, or the stirrup-cup, the draught was not
charged in the reckoning. On this point a learned bailie of the town of
Forfar pronounced a very sound judgment.

A., an ale-wife in Forf