Bum one fault can be found with this most interesting

volume of impressions and anecdotes : there is in it too little of the author and of his special work in life, and perhaps a trifle too much of the familiar anecdotal side of Scotland. Born in 1835, the sometime Director-General of the Geological Survey has not yet reached his threescore and ten. But he has since his twentieth year been connected with the Survey, and of course he is quite entitled to say of Scotland :—" One who for sixty years has mingled with all classes of its inhabitants ; who has watched the decay and disappearance of old and the uprise of new usages; who has ever been on the outlook for illustrations of native humour, and who has been in the habit all along of frequently recounting his experiences to his friends, may perhaps be forgiven if he ventures to put forth some record of what he has seen and heard as a slight contribution to the history of social changes." But somehow as one reads these four hundred pages he feels that ' he would rather have

* Scottish. Reminiscence& By Sir Archibald - Cieiri. Glassow ; Janne MacLehose and Sons. 160.3

have obtained from so competent a pen an account of the pro- gress of Scotland, notonly in the science in which Sir Archibald is an expert, but in kindred branches of knowledge. Still more desirable would it have been to have had from the pen of so very close and humorous an observer as Sir Archibald proves himself to be careful pen-and-ink sketches of the more notable of his Scotch contemporaries—the Blackies, the Macnees, and the Russels—whom he came across, and whose per- sonalities are now becoming shadowy. But, to tell the truth, when Sir Archibald attempts general characterisation he is apt to be commonplace rather than original. Take, for example, this representation of the nouveaux riches now to be found in Scotland, the present-day equivalents of nabobs of the type of Peregrine Touchwood ,

"The new lairds include many excellent and cultivated men well worthy to take their place among the older families. Their command of wealth enables them to improve their estates and to beautify their houses in a way which was impossible for the impoverished owners whom they have replaced ; their taste has created centres of art and culture, and their public spirit and philanthropy are to be seen in the churches, schools, and village reading-rooms which they have erected, and in the good roads which they have made where none existed before. On the other hand, among their number are some of whom the less said the better, and who make their way chiefly in those circles wherein a man of wealth is dubbed a man of worth." " This is no doubt perfectly true, but it is not very original. But if Sir Archibald Geikie's reminiscences be taken

on the personal side, they will be found very readable, and sociologically valuable ; indeed, it may safely be said that nothing quite so good of the kind has appeared since Dean Ramsay's thesaurus of anecdote took, not Scotland merely, but Great Britain by storm. For one thing, this volume certainly does indicate with perfect clearness the change for the better that has taken place so far at least as travelling facilities are concerned. Sir Archibald, as has been said, is not yet seventy, but he can recall the time when steamboats were not in general use upon the Scottish lakes. He visited the Trossachs in 1843, when he was but eight years of age, and then he was rowed the whole length of Loch Katrine by four Highlanders who sang Gaelic songs, keeping time with their oars. He remembers the first rail- ways in Scotland, which justified the remark of the emigrant from the North-East of Scotland who, arriving at Glasgow, said : "I'm Bailin' for China this week, but I'm thinkin' I'm by the warst o' the journey noo." Some of the alterations which have been introduced in Sir Archibald's day are not quite so commendable as those in the modes of locomotion :-

"Not only have the old words and phrases disappeared, but there has arisen an affectation of what is supposed to be English pronunciation which is sometimes irresistibly ludicrous. The broad open vowels, the rolling r's and the strongly aspirated gutturals, so characteristic of the old tongue, are softened down to a milk-and-water lingo which is only a vulgarized and debased English. There was unconscious satire in the answer given by a housemaid to her mistress, who was puzzled to conjecture how far the girl could be intelligible in London whence she had returned to Scotland. You speak such broad Scots, Kate, that I wonder how they could understand you in London.' `O but, mam, I aye spek English there.' 'Did you ? And how did you mansze that ? " 0 mam, there's naethin' easier. Ye mann spit oot a' the r's and gie the words a bit chow in the middle."

The former Director-General of the Geological Survey has a good deal to tell of the reception given to the members of the staff when they were wandering over the country engaged in their work, which was but in its infancy when he was a young man :—

" One member Of the staff who had taken up his quarters in a coast town in Fife was watched by the police on suspicion of having been concerned in a recent burglary. Another was stalked as a suspect who had been setting fire to farm buildings. A third was watched hammering by himself in the bed of a stream near Girvan, and, as he gave vent to some strong expression when the obstinate boulder refused to part with a splinter, the onlooker on the other side of an adjoining hedge fled to the village and re- ported that this strange man who had come among them was

stark mad, and should not be left to go about by himself He finds himself set down now for a postman, now for a doctor, for a farmer, a cattle dealer, a travelling showman, a poacher, an itinerant lecturer, a gauger, a clergyman, a play actor, and often as a generally suspicious character:

As was perhaps to be expected, some of the best of the stories which Sir Archibald Geikie gives—and a good number of which have done duty in various ways and quarters before appearing in his pages—deal with Highland ignorance, future.

" The first visit to Glasgow is a memorable event in the lives of those .West Highlanders who have never seen more people to- gether than at a fair or a sacrament, or more houses than make one of their little clachans. Donald's astonishment at the crowded streets, the interminable array of high houses, and the bustle and swirl of city life has been chronicled in many ludicrous anecdotes. One of these may be quoted as illustrative of one aspect of commercial dealing. Many years ago a newly arrived Highlander was being shown the sights of Glasgow by a fellow- countryman who had now got used to them. As they crossed a street they saw in the distance a dense crowd of people, and the newcomer asked what it meant. He was told that there was a. man being hanged. He then enquired what they were hanginc, him for, and he was told it was for sheep-stealing. He looked aghast at this news, and at last exclaimed: ' Ochan, Ochan ; hanging a man for stealing sheeps ! Could he no' ha bocht them and no peyed for them ?'

The fact that at a certain period in Highland history sheep- stealing was no more regarded as a crime than in some quarters of England poaching is so regarded now gives this story a greater appearance at least of reality than can be claimed for most anecdotes of the same kind. The following suggests an inventive mind, but it is also good in its way:— "In a country parish in the West of Scotland the minister's man was a noted pessimist, whose only consolation to his friends in any calamity consisted in the remark, It micht hae been waur.' One morning he was met by the minister, who told him he had had such a terrible dream that he had not yet been able to shake off the effects of it. I dreamt I was in hell, and experi- enced the torments of the lost. I never suffered such agony in my life, and even now I shudder when I think of it.' The beadle's usual consolatory remark came out : It micht hae been waur.' ' 0, John, John, I tell you it was the greatest mental distress I ever suffered in my life. How could it have been worse ?" It micht hae been true,' was the reply."

The following, on the other hand, bears on its face the grim reality of truth :— " Dr. Sloan, of Ayr, about forty years ago told me that a friend of his had gone not long before to see the parish minister of Craigie near Kilmarnock, and finding him for the moment engaged, had turned into the churchyard, where he sauntered past the sexton, who was at work digging a grave. As the clergyman was detained some time, the visitor walked to and fro along the path, and at length noticed that the sexton's eyes

were pretty constantly fixed upon him At length he stopped and, addressing the grave-digger, asked, What the deil are ye staring at me for? Ye needna tak' the measure o' me, if that's what you're ettlin' at, for we bury at Riccarton.' "

An almost perfect example also of that bald realism which, in Charles Lamb's belief, marred, if it did not quite destroy, the Scotch sense of humour—although, in effect at least, it is a species of humour in itself—is this :— " A country doctor who was attending a laird had instructed the butler of the house in the art of taking and recording his master's temperature with a thermometer. On repairing to the house one morning he was met by the butler, to whom he said, Well, John, I hope the laird's temperature is not any higher to-day' The man looked puzzled for a moment, and then replied: Wed, I was just wonderin' that mysel'. Ye see, he died at twal o'clock."

Sir Archibald Geikie's volume will not, of course, compare with such works as those of the late Mr. Robert Chambers, or of Mr. Henry Grey Graham, as contributions to the social life of Scotland. But he has a great deal to say that is both interesting and fresh upon such subjects as topography, superstition, and relics of old religions, which, intermingled as they are with more purely amusing matter, will be found of importance enough to be of value to the historian of the