for his memory is very dear and delightful to us his pupils, as that of the ablest and best of masters, whose enthusiasm in teaching stimulated us to learn and to love learning all our days, not only as a means of livelihood but of life; whom we feared as we entered, but learnt to love as we passed through this school, and to whom after we had left it we ever felt the deepest sense of gratitude."

The lines

"When all is over on the tomb is seen

Not what he was, but what he should have been,"

are not true of Mr Fraser.

Gray's speech furnish a

record.

The tablet and Mr

plain unvarnished

This visit to Golspie recalls an incident of a former one many years ago, when my travelling was done on horseback. I was spending a weekend at the manse. Dr Joass's servant, thinking my mare required a little exercise, got on her back with this laudable object in view. The mare, evidently regarding this as an unwarranted liberty, promptly dislodged him. The lad naturally did not publish his ignominious though harmless downfall. It came out, however, a

AN EQUESTRIAN INCIDENT.

267

few days after, and Dr Joass sent me the subjoined spirited sketch, which I thought worthy of preservation. He wrote, "I have just been informed that your mare 'dashed my buttons' to the ground, and was making tracks for the grass-parks at Aberdeen, when she was happily caught ere she had gone many yards."

Recent deposit, of mare-ine origin. "Human" remains.

NATHANIEL-" YON "-WATTIE DUNLOP ADVICE BASED ON BIBLICAL EXAMPLE-PROVIDENCE AND LIMITED LIABILITY -"A DIVINITY THAT SHAPES OUR ENDS."

THERE are few Scottish ministers of whom so many stories of pawky humour are told as of Mr Leslie, a former minister of Lhanbryde, in Morayshire. He was a man of comfortable means, of genial but strictly decorous hospitality, and had a wide circle of friends. He was very proud of his skill in brewing toddy suited to the general taste. In his time toddy was made by the host for all his guests in a punch-bowl. Three of his friends, who knew of the pride he had in his skill in the operation, were asked to dine with him, and conspired to deal him the "most unkindest cut of all" on this tender point. After compounding the mixture with his usual care he ladled out a glass for trial pre

THE BEADLE'S DECISION.

269

liminary to real business, and passed it to Mr A, saying, "What do you think of that?"

"It is very nice, but I think it might perhaps stand another bit of sugar."

do

Taken aback at this he said to Mr B, "What you think?"

"It is quite sweet enough, but it strikes me as just a shade strong; a little more water would improve it."

Still more puzzled, he asked Mr C for his opinion, who said that it was excellent, but slightly weak and might be none the worse of just a little more whisky. At his wits' end he rang the bell, and asked the servant to send up John the beadle, on whose judgment he knew he could rely. Filling a glass for John, he asked what he thought of it. "Oh, sir, it's just first rate."

"Very well, John, take this bowl down to the kitchen. Your friends and you will be able to finish it, and send up some coffee to these lads."

While Mr Leslie disliked "rounds of toasts" -that is, the custom of accompanying every glass by a toast or sentiment, a custom that at last became odious and has now fallen into disuse-he retained in his kindly old-fashioned way a fringe of the now forgotten habit. After the

ladies had retired three toasts were proposed(1) an angel, (2) a friend, and (3) a sentiment, after which they joined the ladies. The subjects of the two first were a lady and gentleman held in high estimation by the company. The sentiment was something epigrammatic, such as, "May the evening's enjoyment bear the morning's reflections." In literary and political circles at the time when rounds of toasts were the fashion the sentiment might, however, take different colours, political or cynical, as when Charles Lamb, annoyed by some of his witticisms being drowned by the noisy romping of the children in the nursery adjoining the dining-room, proposed, with a significant glance in the direction of the nursery, "the memory of the good King Herod."

There were many other occasions on which Mr Leslie showed that he had a rich vein of humour. Mr W., a co-presbyter of his, arraigned him before the presbytery for praying for Queen Caroline. He pleaded guilty to the charge, and by way of defence said, "I did pray for her, and if she is as bad as ye make her she'll be nane the waur o' my prayers."

An Aberdeen minister, when called to account by Dr F. on the same charge, defended himself