and
the quantity of pictures is beyond expectation, beyond hope.'

It happened without any previous concert, that we visited the seat of
Lord Bute upon the King's birthday; we dined and drank his Majesty's
health at an inn, in the village of Luton.

In the evening I put him in mind of his promise to favour me with a copy
of his celebrated Letter to the Earl of Chesterfield, and he was at last
pleased to comply with this earnest request, by dictating it to me from
his memory; for he believed that he himself had no copy[414]. There was
an animated glow in his countenance while he thus recalled his
high-minded indignation.

He laughed heartily at a ludicrous action in the Court of Session, in
which I was Counsel. The Society of _Procurators_, or Attornies,
entitled to practise in the inferiour courts at Edinburgh, had obtained
a royal charter, in which they had taken care to have their ancient
designation of Procurators changed into that of _Solicitors_, from a
notion, as they supposed, that it was more genteel[415]; and this new
title they displayed by a publick advertisement for a _General Meeting_
at their HALL.

It has been said, that the Scottish nation is not distinguished for
humour; and, indeed, what happened on this occasion may in some degree
justify the remark: for although this society had contrived to make
themselves a very prominent object for the ridicule of such as might
stoop to it, the only joke to which it gave rise, was the following
paragraph, sent to the newspaper called _The Caledonian Mercury_:--

'A correspondent informs us, that the Worshipful Society of _Chaldeans_,
_Cadies_[416], or _Running Stationers_ of this city are resolved, in
imitation, and encouraged by the singular success of their brethren, of
an equally respectable Society, to apply for a Charter of their
Privileges, particularly of the sole privilege of PROCURING, in the most
extensive sense of the word[417], exclusive of chairmen, porters,
penny-post men, and other _inferiour_ ranks; their brethren the R--Y--L
S--LL--RS, _alias_ P--C--RS, _before the_ INFERIOUR Courts of this City,
always excepted.

'Should the Worshipful Society be successful, they are farther resolved
not to be _puffed up_ thereby, but to demean themselves with more
equanimity and decency than their _R--y--l, learned_, and _very modest_
brethren above mentioned have done, upon their late dignification and
exaltation.'

A majority of the members of the So