n rather singular grounds. His lordship, when one of the
justiciary judges, returning from the North Circuit to Perth, happened
one night to sleep at Dunkeld. The next morning, walking towards the
ferry, but apprehending he had missed his way, he asked a man whom he
met to conduct him. The other answered, with much cordiality, "That I
will do with all my heart, my lord. Does not your lordship remember me?
My name's John ----. I have had the _honour_ to be before your lordship
for stealing sheep!"--"Oh, John, I remember you well; and how is your
wife? She had the honour to be before me too, for receiving them,
knowing them to be stolen."--"At your lordship's service. We were very
lucky; we got off for want of evidence; and I am still going on in the
butcher trade."--"Then," replied his lordship, "we may have the honour
of meeting again."

Once when on Circuit his lordship had been dozing on the bench, a noise
created by the entrance of a new panel woke him, and he inquired what
the matter was. "Oh, it's a woman, my lord, accused of child
murder."--"And a weel farred b--h too," muttered his lordship, loud
enough to be heard by those present.

* * * * *

[Illustration: JOHN CLERK, LORD ELDIN.]

John Clerk (Lord Eldin) was one of the best-known advocates at the
Scottish Bar in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, and
probably the last of them to retain the old Scots style of
pronunciation. His voice was loud and his manner brow-beating, from
which the Bench suffered equally with his brother members of the Bar. He
suffered from a lameness in one leg, which was made the subject of a
passing remark by two young women in the High Street of Edinburgh one
day as Clerk was making his way to Court. "There goes John Clerk the
lame lawyer," said one to the other. Clerk overheard the remark, and
turning back addressed the speaker: "The lame man, my good woman, not
the lame lawyer."

The stories of his advocate days are numerous, and many of them probably
well known. In his retention of old Scots pronunciation he got the
better of Lord Eldon when pleading before the House of Lords one day.
"That's the whole thing in plain English, ma lords," he said. "In plain
Scotch, you mean, Mr. Clerk."--"Nae maitter, in plain common sense, ma
lords, and that's the same in a' languages." On another occasion before
the same tribunal he had frequently referred to water, pronouncing it
"watter," when he was