in 1872, are all edifices which before the days of railway travelling would have been regarded by the native of Laurencekirk as marvels of architecture. Nor are the changes which speak of growing prosperity confined to one part of the burgh. Many a humble tenement has been replaced with buildings suited to modern taste and culture; while dreary lanes have been transformed into respectable streets, which in point of nomenclature will vie not unsuccessfully with many towns of larger population and greater pretension.

Bailie Fettes's tenure of office was of such lengthened duration, that in the eyes of nearly a whole generation he came to be identified with the chief magistracy of the burgh. But the infirmities of age necessitated his retirement in 1876, and he died on January 23d of the following year.

His elder son, Charles William Fettes, born in 1834, having passed the curriculum of Arts in St Andrews University, and of medicine in the University of Edinburgh, graduated at the latter university, and soon after obtained an appointment in the East India Company's service, which is understood to have been the last made by that honourable body. His destination was to the Presidency of Bombay, in which it was customary for all medical officers to serve at least two years of their time in the navy. Having completed rather more than the regular term as a naval medical officer, he was transferred to a regiment of horse - artillery, and was stationed with his regiment at Kirkee, until separated from it in consequence of important changes in the Indian service. His next appointment was a temporary

one, having been selected to meet Lady Lawrence. at Aden, and be in attendance on her ladyship as medical officer until she joined her husband, the Governor-General of India. Soon after executing this mission he was promoted to the office of surgeon to the Governor of Bombay, who was then Sir Bartle Frere. His successful career was cut short by manifestations of declining health. When sufficiently recovered from the first severe attack, he left India for home. The first half of the homeward voyage was full of promise, but when near the Azores he suffered a relapse, and landed at Plymouth to breathe his last, 6th July 1866, at the residence of his brotherin-law, Dr Duirs, at the age of thirty-two years.

John Rae was elected bailie in 1876, and John Craig was appointed burgh clerk.

Bailie Rae, a native of the burgh, and the third holder of a name which has been on the list of burgesses from the beginning, is no unworthy successor of a line of chief magistrates, not one of whom survives, but the fruits of whose successive labours are still being reaped by the community at large.

CHAPTER XXI.

BURGH OFFICERS.

Independently of the burgh officers, there has been a variety of officials appointed from time to time, to carry out the behests of the councils.

Their duties have been more or less responsible in the eyes of the community, but they are not of sufficient importance to be enlarged upon; and it will be enough to preface this chapter on the more permanent functionary with a brief notice of one or two of those who have been associated with him in attending to the interests of the burgh.

Ever since the railway period began, the office of billet-master must have been a sinecure. In the early days of the burgh it demanded greater attention on the part of the master, and entailed more frequent inconvenience on the people. The first holder of the office was William Lyall, with whom it was no sinecure, as there were regiments frequently passing for whose accommodation he had to provide. The task was not one to be easily performed with satisfaction to all parties, and in 1782 William was accused before the council of partial billeting, when he received definite instructions as to his future conduct.

James Ross, constable, is referred to in a minute of 1811, but the office which he held was more of the nature of that of procurator-fiscal, his duty being to prosecute. The following year his services were in requisition among the more dilatory in the discharge of their water - rate. When the supply was first introduced into the village, the burgesses had agreed to pay eight pence per fireplace for water money. But a regular procurator-fiscal was appointed, even before the reorganisation which took place during Bailie Crabb's tenure of office. James Walker was elected procurator-fiscal in November 1823.

George Collie was the first burgh officer. He

had given place before 1794 to James Napier, for whose use a hand-bell was procured by the council of that year.

A

John Dallas, one of the worthies whose portraits appear in the Gardenstone Arms, may have been the next official. On one occasion, his legitimate use of the bell was likely to involve him in trouble. There was a weavers' procession in the village of periodic occurrence. A mischievous blacksmith was in the habit, on such occasions, of expressing contempt for the craft as they marched past his workshop. pole, to which was attached a strip of cloth-the more tattered it seemed the better for his purposewas projected above the doorway, while the cry of "Lang thrums! lang thrums!" greeted the ears of the processionists until they were quite beyond the reach of his voice. The weavers had long pondered the offence done to their craft, when John Dallas was employed, in his capacity of bell-man, to make the following public announcement :

"Take notice, this is to inform the inhabitants that Michael M'Cracker leaves William Scott's smiddy this forenoon, and the weavers will have free access through the village from one end to the other." The injured tradesmen, who had stood in awe of the real offender, threatened to wreak their vengeance upon his innocent agent, who had some difficulty in appeasing their wrath.

James Irvine was officer in 1813, and he had as his substitute John Balfour. The latter came from Montrose, and belonged to the family from which the honourable member for the county has sprung. He acquired possession of Lord Colvill's feu in

1814, and his widow was in possession until a comparatively recent date.

Alexander Neilson was burgh officer in 1816. That year he complained that Andrew Watson, shoemaker, and others, "persisted in firing musquets in spite of his orders to the contrary." Their names were sent to the procurator-fiscal at Stonehaven, who, having consulted the sheriff, thought the offence cognisable by the bailie, and it was remitted to him. accordingly.

Andrew Watson, shoemaker, whose fondness for the gun was thus early manifested, came afterwards to be one of his successors in the office. He was eminently qualified in some respects, being well educated, and having already given evidence that he had the making of a good detective in him. His workshop was visited on one occasion by a beggar, who by aid of artificial signs indicated that he was deaf and dumb, and desired an alms. Suspicious of the applicant, and resolved on testing him, Andrew called to his wife in another apartment, "Annie, shut the outer door, an' bring my sharpin' - stane. Here's a dummy wi' plenty o' bawbees, an' naebody saw him come in. We'll do for him." Before the outer door could have been locked, the "deaf and dumb" man was on the safe side of it. He disposed of another case of imposition quite as summarily. A mendicant was pleading for a copper. "I wad hae

gien you a penny, but I've naething less than a crown," was Andrew's reply, to be met with the whining response, "I'll cheenge it for you." "If you can cheenge a crown, you rascal, you're a richer man than mysel'!" was the ready answer.