three--he could not say, like Pope:

"Why did I _write_? What sin to me unknown
_Dipt me in ink_, my parents' or my own?"

Blackie speaks thus of him: "Rob Donn, according to all accounts, though
outwardly of such fair respectability that he attained an honour,
unknown to Robert Burns, of acting as an elder of the kirk, was not
always so chaste in his words as he might seem to be in his deeds; he
took his plash as a poet, and not always in the clearest waters;
besides, he had a terrible lash at his command, which he could wield
with an effect at times that paid little respect to the bounds set in
such matters by Christian charity, or even by social politeness. The
consequence has been that much of the wit and humour of his pieces,
however telling for its immediate purpose, has lost half of its interest
by the disappearance of the persons to whom it referred. These personal
allusions also import an additional difficulty into the language which
he uses, and cause his productions, however belauded, to be less known
amongst Highlanders generally than those of Duncan Ban and Dugald
Buchanan. Severe moralists also very properly object to the undue
license and occasional coarseness of his verses."[33]

[33] Rob was at one time in the army, for every Mackay has the
fighting instinct in him. (Reay is one of the few townships in
the North that possess a drill-hall and a military instructor. It
is impossible adequately to describe the consternation in the
Mackay country at the time of our South African reverses.
Everyone was in a fury and it was felt there was urgent need for
the Mackays to straighten out matters at the seat of war. It was
at this time that the drill-hall was built in Reay. Many of the
young men went to the front as volunteers, and if the war had
lasted much longer, there would have been few Mackays left in
Sutherlandshire.)

REV. MR. MILL OF DUNROSSNESS.

Before concluding the present chapter, I should like to refer briefly to
a valuable and amusing book (brought under my notice in Shetland) that
furnishes details of the life of Mr. Mill, minister of Dunrossness from
1742 till 1805. Mr. Mill's special talent was his unrivalled power of
exorcism: he was a strenuous foe to the devil in every shape and form,
and his life was one long battle with the Prince of Darkness. The latter
was constantly bringing into play all manner of gins, traps, and wiles
to co