om a story told me by an aged
gentleman of the elder President Dundas of Amiston (father of the younger
President and of Lord Melville). It had been thought very desirable,
while that distinguished lawyer was king's counsel, that his assistance
should be obtained in drawing an appeal case, which, as occasion for such
writings then rarely occurred, was held to be matter of great nicety. The
solicitor employed for the appellant, attended by my informant acting as
his clerk, went to the Lord Advocate's chambers in the Fishmarket Close,
as I think. It was Saturday at noon, the Court was just dismissed, the
Lord Advocate had changed his dress and booted himself, and his servant
and horses were at the foot of the close to carry him to Arniston. It was
scarcely possible to get him to listen to a word respecting business. The
wily agent, however, on pretence of asking one or two questions, which
would not detain him half an hour, drew his Lordship, who was no less an
eminent ban vivant than a lawyer of unequalled talent, to take a whet at
a celebrated tavern, when the learned counsel became gradually involved
in a spirited discussion of the law points of the case. At length it
occurred to him that he might as well ride to Arniston in the cool of the
evening. The horses were directed to be put in the stable, but not to be
unsaddled. Dinner was ordered, the law was laid aside for a time, and the
bottle circulated very freely. At nine o'clock at night, after he had
been honouring Bacchus for so many hours, the Lord Advocate ordered his
horses to be unsaddled; paper, pen, and ink were brought; he began to
dictate the appeal case, and continued at his task till four o'clock the
next morning. By next day's post the solicitor sent the case to London, a
chef-d'oeuvre of its kind; and in which, my informant assured me, it was
not necessary on revisal to correct five words. I am not, therefore,
conscious of having overstepped accuracy in describing the manner in
which Scottish lawyers of the old time occasionally united the worship of
Bacchus with that of Themis. My informant was Alexander Keith, Esq.,
grandfather to my friend, the present Sir Alexander Keith of Ravelstone,
and apprentice at the time to the writer who conducted the cause.

NOTE 4, p. 180

We must again have recourse to the contribution to Blackwood's Magazine,
April 1817:--

'To the admirers of good eating, gipsy cookery seems to have little to
recommend it. I ca