nds than a corresponding class in England, but they had
less awe of the concomitants of death, and approached them with more
familiarity. For example, I remember long ago at Fasque, my
sister-in-law visiting a worthy and attached old couple, of whom the
husband, Charles Duncan, who had been gardener at Fasque for above
thirty years was evidently dying. He was sitting on a common deal chair,
and on my sister proposing to send down for his use an old arm-chair
which she recollected was laid up in a garret, his wife exclaimed
against such a needless trouble: "Hout, my leddy, what would he be duin'
wi' an arm-chair? he's just deein' fast awa." I have two anecdotes,
illustrative of the same state of feeling, from a lady of ancient
Scottish family accustomed to visit her poor dependants on the property,
and to notice their ways. She was calling at a decent cottage, and found
the occupant busy carefully ironing out some linens. The lady remarked,
"Those are fine linens you have got there, Janet." "Troth, mem," was the
reply, "they're just the gudeman's _deed_ claes, and there are nane
better i' the parish." On another occasion, when visiting an excellent
woman, to condole with her on the death of her nephew, with whom she had
lived, and whose loss must have been severely felt by her, she remarked,
"What a nice white cap you have got, Margaret." "Indeed, mem, ay, sae it
is; for ye see the gude lad's winding sheet was ower lang, and I cut aff
as muckle as made twa bonny mutches" (caps).

There certainly was a quaint and familiar manner in which sacred and
solemn subjects were referred to by the older Scottish race, who did
not mean to be irreverent, but who no doubt appeared so to a more
refined but not really a more religious generation.

It seems to me that this plainness of speech arose in part from the
_sincerity_ of their belief in all the circumstances of another
condition of being. They spoke of things hereafter as positive
certainties, and viewed things invisible through the same medium as they
viewed things present. The following is illustrative of such a state of
mind, and I am assured of its perfect authenticity and literal
correctness:--"Joe M'Pherson and his wife lived in Inverness. They had
two sons, who helped their father in his trade of a smith. They were
industrious and careful, but not successful. The old man had bought a
house, leaving a large part of the price unpaid. It was the ambition of
his life to pay