A jolly dame, who, not ‘Sixty Years since,’ kept the principal caravansary at Greenlaw in Berwickshire, had the honour to receive under her roof a very worthy clergyman, with three sons of the same profession, each having a cure of souls:  be it said in passing, none of the reverend party were reckoned powerful in the pulpit.  After dinner was over, the worthy senior, in the pride of his heart, asked Mrs. Buchan whether she ever had had such a party in her house before.  ’Here sit I,’ he said, ’a placed minister of the Kirk of Scotland, and here sit my three sons, each a placed minister of the same kirk.—­confess, Luckie Buchan, you never had such a party in your house before.’  The question was not premised by any invitation to sit down and take a glass of wine or the like, so Mrs. B. answered dryly, ’Indeed, Sir, I cannot just say that ever I had such a party in my house before, except once in the forty-five, when I had a Highland piper here, with his three sons, all Highland pipers; and deil A spring they could play amang them.’

NOTE 6.—­THE CUSTOM OF KEEPING FOOLS

I am ignorant how long the ancient and established custom of keeping fools has been disused in England.  Swift writes an epitaph on the Earl of Suffolk’s fool,—­

‘Whose name was Dickie Pearce.’

In Scotland the custom subsisted till late in the last century.  At Glamis Castle, is preserved the dress of one of the jesters, very handsome, and ornamented with many bells.  It is not above thirty years since such a character stood by the sideboard of a nobleman of the first rank in Scotland, and occasionally mixed in the conversation, till he carried the joke rather too far, in making proposals to one of the young ladies of the family, and publishing the banns betwixt her and himself in the public church.

NOTE 7.—­PERSECUTION OF EPISCOPAL CLERGYMEN

After the Revolution of 1688, and on some occasions when the spirit of the Presbyterians had been unusually animated against their opponents, the Episcopal clergymen, who were chiefly non-jurors, were exposed to be mobbed, as we should now say, or rabbled, as the phrase then went, to expiate their political heresies.  But notwithstanding that the Presbyterians had the persecution in Charles II and his brother’s time to exasperate them, there was little mischief done beyond the kind of petty violence mentioned in the text.

NOTE 8.—­STIRRUP-CUP

I may here mention, that the fashion of compotation described in the text, was still occasionally practised in Scotland in the author’s youth.  A company, after having taken leave of their host, often went to finish the evening at the clachan or village, in ‘womb of tavern.’  Their entertainer always accompanied them to take the stirrup-cup, which often occasioned a long and late revel.