the
pride of blood, the inherent sense of authority, the habit of rule, the
gracious arts of manner, the conviction of popular devotion, the grasp
of affairs, the interest in the people's life, which are the marks and
aids of a royal caste. It was not in the nature of things that the
Doctor should condescend to quarrel with a farmer or mix himself up
with any vulgar squabble, because his will was law in ninety cases in a
hundred, and in the other ten he skilfully anticipated the people's
wishes. When the minister of Nether Pitfoodles--who had sermons on
"Love, Courtship, and Marriage," and was much run after in
Muirtown--quarrelled with his elders about a collection, and asked the
interference of the Presbytery, Dr. Davidson dealt severely with him in
open court as one who had degraded the ministry and discredited
government. It was noticed also that the old gentleman would afterward
examine Nether Pitfoodles curiously for minutes together in the
Presbytery, and then shake his head.

"Any man," he used to say to his reverend brother of Kildrummie, as
they went home from the Presbytery together, "who gets unto a wrangle
with his farmers about a collection is either an upstart or he is a
fool, and in neither case ought he to be a minister of the Church of
Scotland." And the two old men would lament the decay of the ministry
over their wine in Kildrummie Manse--being both of the same school,
cultured, clean-living, kind-hearted, honourable, but not extravagantly
evangelical clergymen. They agreed in everything except the matter of
their after-dinner wine, Dr. Davidson having a partiality for port,
while the minister of Kildrummie insisted that a generous claret was
the hereditary drink of a Scottish gentleman. This was only, however,
a subject of academic debate, and was not allowed to interfere with
practice--the abbe of Drumtochty taking his bottle of claret, in an
appreciative spirit, and the cure of Kildrummie disposing of his two or
three glasses of port with cheerful resignation.

If Drumtochty exalted its minister above his neighbours, it may be
urged in excuse that Scottish folk are much affected by a man's birth,
and Dr. Davidson had a good ancestry. He was the last of his line, and
represented a family that for two centuries had given her sons to the
Kirk. Among those bygone worthies, the Doctor used to select one in
especial for honourable mention. He was a minister of Dunleith, whose
farmers preferre