Old Highland Days : Reminiscences of Dr. John Kennedy. (R
T.S. 6.s.)—Mr. Howard Angus Kennedy introduces his father's reminiscences and his own biographical chapters by what we may call a "fighting" preface. Dr. Kennedy was a fighting man himself, but, unless we are mistaken, of a more generous temper. "Materialism disguising its irreligion in the cloak of established ceremony and superstition" is a sample of his way of writing. What does he mean by "established ceremony "P However, enough of Mr. H. A. Kennedy ; about his father we have been glad to read. For Dr. Kennedy was a fine specimen of honesty and independence, and left behind him a great record of good work. His grandfather was an Episcopalian and a Jacobite; his grandmother's brother had fought at Culloden ; his father, beginning life as a farmer, became a preacher under the influence of the Haldanes, a movement which was not unlike that of the Wesleys in England, and as a reforming agency was certainly not less needed. Dr. Kennedy tells a story of a notorious offender buying off the disgrace of the cutty-stool by a bribe of a keg of whisky to the parish minister. The Kirk Session would not interfere, and one of the elders—John Kennedy's uncle—seceded in dis- gust. Other kinds of lawlessness abounded. John Kennedy's mother more than once narrowly escaped abduction. In 1828, at the age of fifteen, he went to the University of Aberdeen, where be lived on 2s. 6d. a week (meat, 10d. ; meal, 10Id.; potatoes, 24d.; barley, id.; milk, 3d.; with 2Id. unaccounted for). After this came a tutorship in the family of Lord Breadal- bane, where he had a somewhat stormy time. Then he went to Edinburgh, being now twenty years of age. Here he studied for pleasure, and taught for his bread and his brothers' bread also; they too were students and he supported them. Among the Pro- fedsors were Chalmers and "Christopher North." The latter did not leave a favourable impression, at least in his function of Professor. In 1836 —be was then twenty-three—he was ordained minister of Blackfriars (Independent) Church in Aberdeen. In ten years' time he married a sister of Professor Blackie, and shortly after took a pastoral charge at Stepney. Here he remained, doing much work, both literary and other, outside his own district, for more than thirty years. His last abode was at Hampstead, where he "sat under" Dr. Horton, not unfrequently "agreeing to differ" from his minister. And here he died, keenly interested in activities of many kinds to the last. His was indeed a viridis senectus, ad quern, any one may well say, utinam perveniam.
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