18 MARCH 1922, Page 24

Stevensonians should note the excellent article by Mr. William Roughead

on "The Bicentenary of Lord Brasfield" in the Juridical Review for March (Edinburgh : Green). Robert M`Queen, Lord Justice Clerk, was born at Brasfield, near Lanark, on May 4th, 1722, and died in May, 1799. Mr. Roughead repeats and enlarges his contention that the brutal old judge depicted in Weir of Hermiston was in no sense a fair or accurate portrait of Brasfield. Stevenson, like many other people, was misled by Lord Cockburn, who was a mere boy when Brasfield died, but who from hearsay evidence and political prejudice wrote a most unflattering account of the old judge, which has been too readily accepted by posterity.