I had two grand-aunts living at Montrose at that time—­two Miss Ramsays of Balmain.  They were somewhat of the severe class—–­Nelly especially, who was an object rather of awe than of affection.  She certainly had a very awful appearance to young apprehensions, from the strangeness of her headgear.  Ladies of this class Lord Cockburn has spoken of as “having their peculiarities embodied in curious outsides, as they dressed, spoke, and did exactly as they chose.”  As a sample of such “curious outside and dress,” my good aunt used to go about the house with an immense pillow strapped over her head—­warm but formidable.  These two maiden grand-aunts had invited their niece to pay them a visit—­an aunt of mine, who had made what they considered a very imprudent marriage, and where considerable pecuniary privations were too likely to accompany the step she had taken.  The poor niece had to bear many a taunt directed against her improvident union, as for example:—­One day she had asked for a piece of tape for some work she had in hand as a young wife expecting to become a mother.  Miss Nelly said, with much point, “Ay, Kitty, ye shall get a bit knittin’ (i.e. a bit of tape).  We hae a’thing; we’re no married.”  It was this lady who, by an inadvertent use of a term, showed what was passing in her mind in a way which must have been quite transparent to the bystanders.  At a supper which she was giving, she was evidently much annoyed at the reckless and clumsy manner in which a gentleman was operating upon a ham which was at table, cutting out great lumps, and distributing them to the company.  The lady said, in a very querulous tone, “Oh, Mr. Divot, will you help Mrs. So and So?”—­divot being a provincial term for a turf or sod cut out of the green, and the resemblance of it to the pieces carved out by the gentleman evidently having taken possession of her imagination.  Mrs. Helen Carnegy of Craigo, already mentioned, was a thorough specimen of this class.  She lived in Montrose, and died in 1818, at the advanced age of ninety-one.  She was a Jacobite, and very aristocratic in her feelings, but on social terms with many burghers of Montrose, or Munross as it was called.  She preserved a very nice distinction of addresses, suited to the different individuals in the town, according as she placed them in the scale of her consideration.  She liked a party at quadrille, and sent out her servant every morning to invite the ladies required to make up the game, and her directions were graduated thus:—­“Nelly, ye’ll ging to Lady Carnegy’s, and mak my compliments, and ask the honour of her ladyship’s company, and that of the Miss Carnegys, to tea this evening; and if they canna come, ging to the Miss Mudies, and ask the pleasure of their company; and if they canna come, ye may ging to Miss Hunter and ask the favour of her company and if she canna come, ging to Lucky Spark and bid her come.”