s drink is sour.'"

[179] Empty.

[180] Basket for fish.

[181] Well advanced.

[182] Wearied.

[183] I have abundant evidence to prove that a similar answer to that
which Dr. Alexander records to have been made to Mr. Gillespie has been
given on similar occasions by others.

[184] Oats heavy in bulk.

[185] This Marquis of Lothian was aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland
at the battle of Culloden, who sullied his character as a soldier and a
nobleman by the cruelties which he exercised on the vanquished.

[186] Sir H. Moncreiff's _Life of Dr. J. Erskine_.

[187] Extraordinary.

[188] In Scotland it is usual to term the law-agent or man of business
of any person his "doer."

[189] And yet, even as we write, weepers seem to be passing into
reminiscence.

[190] This expression was adopted apparently in ridicule of the French
applying the word "Madame" to a cow.

CONCLUSION.

I am very anxious to bear in mind throughout these Reminiscences, and to
keep in view the same feeling for my readers--viz. that such details
regarding the changes which many living have themselves noticed as
taking place in our customs and habits of society in Scotland, should
always suggest the question to the thoughtful and serious mind, Are the
changes which have been observed for _good_? Is the world a better world
than that which we can remember? On some important points changes have
been noticed in the upper classes of Scottish society, which
unquestionably _are_ improvements. For example, the greater attention
paid to observance of Sunday, and to attendance upon public
worship,--the partial disappearance of profane swearing and of excess in
drinking. But then the painful questions arise, Are such beneficial
changes _general_ through the whole body of our countrymen? may not the
vices and follies of one grade of society have found a refuge in those
that are of a lower class? may not new faults have taken their place
where older faults have been abandoned? Of this we are quite sure--no
lover of his country can fail to entertain the anxious wish, that the
change we noticed in regard to drinking and swearing were universal, and
that we had some evidence of its being extended through all classes of
society. We ought certainly to feel grateful when we reflect that, in
many instances which we have noticed, the ways and customs of society
are much improved in common sense, in decency, in delicacy, and
refinement. There are ce