My beloved Susan is very zealous as the animals’ friend, and birds of many sorts welcome and solicit her as their patroness.  She desires to be most kindly remembered to you, with, my dear Dean, your attached old friend,

     JOHN SHEPPARD.

P.S.—­Susan instructs me to say for her that, “since reading your letter to the Guardian, she loves you more than ever, if possible.”  My words are cool in comparison with hers; and this is a curious message for an ancient husband to convey.

     She thinks we have not thanked you for the Bishop’s Latin
     verses and the translations of them.  If we have not, it is
     not because our “reminiscences” of you are faint or few.

I wish to preserve a note of a dear old friend of my own, whose talents, perhaps I might say whose genius, was only shrouded by his modesty.  I know that the Dean felt how gratifying it was to find among his congregation men of such accomplishment, such scholarship, as George Moir and George Dundas, and it is something to show that they responded very heartily to that feeling.

     GEORGE MOIR to DEAN RAMSAY.

     Monday morning, 14 Charlotte Square.

My dear Dean—­My condition renders it frequently impossible to attend church, from the difficulty I have in remaining for any length of time.  But I have been able to be present the last two Sundays, and I cannot refrain from saying with how much pleasure I listened yesterday to your discourse on charity.  It was not unworthy of the beautiful passage which formed its ground-work; clear, consecutive, eloquent, and with a moral application of which I wish we may all avail ourselves.

     Long may you continue to advise and instruct those who are
     to come after me.

     I was delighted to see you looking so well, and to notice the
     look of vigour with which the discourse was delivered. 
     Believe me ever most truly yours, GEO. MOIR.

In 1866 the Dean had delivered two lectures upon “Preachers and Preaching,” but which were afterwards published in a volume called Pulpit Table-Talk.  That is the subject of the following letter from a great master of the art:—­

     Dr. GUTHRIE to DEAN RAMSAY.

     Inchgrundle, Tarfside, by Brechin,

     31st August 1868.

My dear Mr. Dean—­Your Pulpit Table-Talk has been sent here to gratify, delight, and edify me.  A most entertaining book; and full of wise and admirable sentiments.  All ministers and preachers should read and digest it.  Age seems to have no more dulling effect on you than it had on Sir David Brewster, who retained, after he had turned the threescore and ten, all the greenery, foliage, and flowers of youth—­presenting at once the freshness of Spring, and the flowers of Summer, and the precious fruits of Autumn.