BOOKS.

REMINISCENCES OF SCOTTISH LIFE AND CHARACTER.*

THOSE who are familiar—and who is not?—with the former series of Dr. Ramsay's admirable Reminiscences, will be quite prepared to believe our assertion, that it does not' often happen that the task of the reviewer is at once so easy and so pleasant as it is in the case of the volume now before us. A collection of stories illustrative of that peculiar form of humour which is specially characteristic of the• Scottish people, made by a gentleman whose appreciation of, an relish for, that humour are more than ordinarily keen, is manifestly a book not to be criticized, but simply to be enjoyed. We are anxious that the enjoyment which we have derived from its perusal should be shared as widely as possible by the public at large; and

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the simplest and most efficient way of carrying out our wishes in this respect is to present our readers with such a sample of its contents• as may give them a fair idea of the quality of the whole. The only difficulty in the way of the performance of this task is one of selec- tion. We do not incur the slightest danger of forestalling the plea- sure which is in store for the readers of Dr. Ramsay's work, or of satisfying the curiosity which it is our design merely to excite; for so numerous and so uniformly amusing are the stories which are therein gathered together, that for every one which our limit will allow us to reproduce, at least a dozen, nearly if not quite as good,, remain behind.

The present volume is, in the strictest sense of the term, merely supplementary to its predecessor. No sooner had the appearance of the former work made the public aware of the fact that its author was engaged in making a collection of stories illustrative of Scottish life and character, than a stream of contributions began to pour steadily in upon him from the most various sources. These contri- bations Dr. Ramsay has now given to the world, arranging them under the same system of classification which he had adopted in his previous volume, to which, indeed, he makes numerous references throughout the course of the .present work. Under the head of "Religious Feelings and Religious Observances," we have several new stories, to one or two of which we must more particularly allude. The practice of sleeping in church was one, as the readers of the former series of Reminiscences will well remember, the Scotch minis- ters were wont to rebuke in a singularly effectual manner. This- custom is most amusingly illustrated by the following story : " The clergyman had observed one of his flock asleep during his sermon. He paused, and called him to order. 'Jeems Robson, ye are sleepin', I insist on your wanking when God's word is preached to ye." Weel, sir, ye may look at your sin seat, and yell see a sleeper forbye me,' answered Jeems, pointing to the cler- gyman's lady in the minister's pew. Then Jeems,' said the minister, when ye see my wife asleep again, baud up your hand.' By-and-by the arm was stretched out, and sure enough the fair lady was caught in the act. Her husband solemnly called upon her to stand up and receive the censure due to her offence. He thus addressed her: Mrs. B., a'body kens that when I got ye for my wife, I got nae beauty. Yer frien's ken that I got use Biller; and if! diana get God's grace, I shall has a puir bargain indeed.'

The genial author of "Horn Subsecivae" will delight in the following instance of consideration for the feelings of the canine race. It oc- curred in a pastoral district in Sutherland, where the population is very scanty, and each shepherd is always accompanied to church by his colly-dog. The four-footed hearers sit out the Gaelic service and sermon most patiently, but are apt, at the termination of the latter, to give vent to their feelings by breaking out into a chorus of barking—a demonstration which the congregation determined to avoid by not rising when the blessing was pronounced. This depar- ture from the usual custom caused a stranger, who was on one occa- sion officiating in the church, to hesitate when he was about to pro- nounce the blessing, till an old shepherd, looking up to the pulpit, said, " Say, awa', sir, we're a' sitting to cheat the dowgs." At no time has it been usual in Scotland for clergymen to go to theatres, but formerly the practice was more common than it is now. Some of our readers will, perhaps, be surprised at Dr. Ramsay's unequi- vocal statement respecting the present state of opinion on this point, that "he feels quite assured no clergyman could expect to retain the respect of his people or of the public, of whom it was known that he attended theatrical representations." Under the head of "Old Scottish Conviviality," there is a capital story of an old lady in Galloway, who was returning from a supper- party, on a pillion behind her husband :

"On crossing the river Urr, at a ford at a point where it joins the sea, the old lady dropped off, but was not missed till her husband reached his door, whei, of course, there was a search made. The party who were despatched in quest of her arrived just in time to find her remonstrating with the advancing tide, which trickled into her month, in these words, anither drap; neither bet nor cauld.'

To the anecdotes which come under the division of " The old Sottish Domestic Servant," the present volume does not make any very remarkable additions; but it is very rich in those of a purely humorous character, which constitute the two last sections into which Dean Ramsay divides his subject. We must reproduce a few of the best of them. Foremost among them is the answer of old Mrs. Robison (the widow of the eminent professor of natural philo- sophy) to a gentleman whom she had invited to dinner, and who had accepted with the observation, "If I am spared." " Weel, weel, if ye're dead, I'll no expect ye." An amusing instance of the in- veterate tendency in Scotch people to mark position by reference to the points of the compass occurred in a billiard-room in Stirling,

• ReMiltiSCERCU of Scotiiila Life and character. By E. B. Ramsay, MA., LLD. F.R S.E., Dean of Edinburgh. Second Series. Edinburgh : Edmonton and Douglas.

about forty years ago, when, a half-Highland private in the yeomanry cavalry, then in the towt ,

, was heard instructing a comrade to streik the red ba' on the north-wast side, and ye wad pocket it." Very good, too, is the reply of a clergyman's wife to a laird at whose house she and her husband had been sleeping, and who, being very proud of one of the very large beds which bad just come into fashion, inquired in the morning how she had slept m it: "0, very wed, sir; but, indeed, I thought I'd lost the minister a'thegither." Still better is that of an old maiden lady at Montrose, who declined to subscribe towards the organization of a volunteer corps in that town in the following terms: "Indeed, I'll do use sic thing; I never could raise a man for sewer , and I'm no gaen to raise men for King George." The following anecdote of Lord Eldon is new to us, and is well worth perusing "At the time of passing what was usually called the Catholic Relief Bill, Lady Clerk wrote to Lord Eldon, congratulating him upon the energetic stand he had made to prevent the bill becoming law. Ms answer was laconic, and nearly thus: Dear Molly. Deere, I am happy to find you approve of my endeavours to oppose the Catholic Relief Bill. I have done what I thought my duty. May God forgive me if I have done wrong, and may God forgive my opponents (if he eon). Yours affectionately,—Eldon."

The next story is told of David Dewar, who, for many years, pre- sided over the Baptist community at Dunfermline :

" Being elected a member of the Prison Board, he was called upon to give his vote in the choice of a chaplain from the licentiates of the Established Kirk. The party who had gained the confidence of the Board had proved rather an in- different preacher in a charge to which he had previously been appointed; and on David being asked to signify his assent to the choice of the Board, he said, Weel, I've no objections to the man, for I understand he has preached a kirk toom (empty) already, and if he be as successful in the jail, he'll maybe preach it vawcant as west'

And it is followed immediately by another, which, in its way, is quite inimitable :

" I recollect my father giving a conversation between a Perthshire laird and one of his tenants. The laird's eldest son was rather a simpleton. Laird says, 4' I am going to send the young laird abroad." " What for?" asks the tenant ; answered—" To see the world ;" tenant replies, "But lordsake, laird, will no the world see him ?" "

Judging from these three stories, the reputation for humour en- joyed in the west of Scotland by a certain "Laird of Logan" was by no means out of foundation :

" This same laird of Logan was at a meeting of the heritors of Cumnocb, where a yroposal was made to erect a new churchyard wall. He met the proposition with the dry remark, I never big dykes till the tenants complain.' " The laird sold a horse to an Englishman, saying, ' Yoa buy him as you see him; but he's an honest beast.' The purchaser took him home. In a few days he stumbled and fell, to the damage of his own knees and his rider's head. On this the angry purchaser remonstrated with the laird, whose reply was, Well, sir, I told you he was an honest beast ; many a time has he threatened to come down with me, and I kenned he would keep his word some day.' "At the time of the threatened invasion, the laird had been taunted at a meeting at Avr with want of a loyal spirit at Cumnock, as at that place no vo- lunteer corps hadbeen raised to meet the coming danger; Cumnock, it should be recollected, being on a high situation, and ten or twelve miles from the coast. '-What sort of people are you, up at Cumnock?' said an Ayr gentleman ; you have not a single volunteer!' Never you heed,' says Logan, very quietly ,• if the French land at Ayr, there will soon be plenty of volunteers up at Cumnock. "

The following is given on the authority of its hero, a Fife gentle- man, who was ninety years of age when he told the story :

" He had been at church at Elie' and listening to a young and perhaps bom- bastic preacher, who happened to be officiating for the Rev. Dr. Milligan, who was in church. After service, meeting the Doctor in the passage, he introduced the young clergyman, who, on being asked by the old man how he did, elevated his shirt-collar, and complained of fatigue, and being very much tired." Tired, did ye say, my mac,' said the old satirist, who was slightly deaf, Lord, man! if you're half as tired as I sin I pity ye.' "

Out of many capital anecdotes of Scotch judges we will select one only, which is told of Lord Rockville (the Hon. Alexander Gordon, third son of the Earl of Aberdeen):

" Like most lawyers of his time, he took his glass freely, and a whimsical ac- count which he gave, before he was advanced to the bench, of his having fallen upon his face, after making too free with the bottle, was commonly current at the time. Upon his appearing rather late at a convivial club with a most rueful ex- pression of countenance, and on being asked what was the matter, he exclaimed, with great solemnity, Gentlemen, I have just met with the most extraordinary adventure that ever occurred to a human being. As I was walking along the Grassmarket, all of a sudden the street rose up and struck mein the face.'"

Among the many stories collected by Dean Ramsay in the present volume, we recognize four or five very old Mends, whose identity is very ineffectually disguised by the Scotch costume in which they are dressed. That told at p. 4 is but a feeble echo of the well-known inquiry addressed by a drunken man to something which he took for a ghost—" Eh, friend, is this a general rising, or are you out by yourself ?" That at p. 20 is an improved edition of the old story of Waiting for the wicked man," which has been told for we do not know how many years of the parish clerk in an English village. The story of the bearers coming to a funeral without the corpse has been related, time out of mind, as an illustration of Irish character and manners. And, unless we are much mistaken, we made our first ac- quaintance with the reply of "a riding elder of a country parish in the west of Scotland," which is given at p.90, in the venerable pages of Joe Miller himself. In each of these cases, however, the version given by Dean Ramsey may, very probably, be the true original of the story.

In an introductory chapter prefixed to the volume before us Dr. Ramsey alludes to a wish expressed by one of his friends, that some- thing of the same kind should be done for England as has been done for Scotland in his Reminiscences. We beg very heartily to echo this -wish. Such a task, however, could scarcely be adequately performed by a single hand ; since it would require an intimate acquaintance with the various dialects and local characteristics which are peculiar to the different districts of England. Dr. Ramsey has, himself, col-

lected some materials illustrative of the life and manners of a remote district in Yorkshire with which he is familiar, some of which are very amusing. Our object in alluding to them, however, is to ex- tract two of the stories included among them, both of which are well worthy of preservation. The first, which was told by the late Bishop of London, illustrates the hold which familiar words often take upon the uneducated mind, unaccompanied by the slightest apprehension of their real meaning.

"An ole woman, who lived quite alone, and was very helpless, had adopted a little girl from the workhouse, and brought her up till she was about sixteen, when she had become a useful helpmate for her in her household concerns, and was to her as a daughter. The child, however, was persuaded to leave the old woman, and was enticed away to be a servant in a farm-house. Some of the neighbours condoling with her, and expressing indignation at the ungrateful con- duct of the girl, the poor old woman meekly observed that such things were only to be expected, as we are told in Scripture they would happen. She then quoted scriptural authority to that effect, adding, You know it is said, " Train up a child, and away he do go,"' which was, in fact, the good woman's reading of the well-known passage, Train up a child in the way he should go,' &c. "

The second is an admirably humorous illustration of the purse- proud disposition which is so common among small farmers in many parts of England.

" I knew a man who, as a fanner and maltster, had amassed (for him) aped fortune, and who could nevertheless hardly read or write. When he got into quarrels with his neighbours, he used to slap his pocket, and warn his opponent, You'd better not meddle me, I be pretty respectablish here.' Riling home from market one day very tipsy, be fell from his horse, and lay helplesss in the ditch. There he was heard saying, ' Here lies ten thousand pound!' But, as if he had not done himself justice, and on second thoughts and further considera- tion, he added, Why not say elev'n?'" The present volume, Dean Ramsey tells us, brings his attempts at illustrating Scottish life and character to a definite close. He has done his work ewe amore ; and therefore, as might be expected, has done it thoroughly well. The apologies, based on the ground of patriotic feeling, which he offers for its production, are entirely un- necessary. The intrinsic goodness of the book is a more than suffi- cient warrant for its existence. The only passage throughout the whole work which we could have wished to have been omitted is one which occurs towards the close of the present volume, in which, led on by a desire to defend the Scottish Church from a self-created charge of being divided against itself, he proceeds to comment at some length upon the divisions in the Church of England, with special reference to the spread of High Church doctrines and to the publication of "Essays and Reviews." Such reflections are far from being desirable at any time ; and, in the present case, they are not only absolutely uncalled for, but they jar most painfully with the eminently pleasant and genial tone of the rest of the book.