of which the price of wheat
immediately bounded up 20s., 25s., and even 30s. per quarter. At once he
saw his opportunity and left for Scotland by the next mail. He knew, of
course, that the mail carried the startling war news to Edinburgh, but
he trusted to his wit to outdo it by reaching the northern capital
first. As the coach passed the farm of Skateraw, some distance east of
Dunbar, it was met by the farmer, old Harry Lee, on horseback. Rennie,
who was an outside passenger, no sooner recognised Lee than he sprang
from his seat on the coach to the ground. Coming up to Lee, Rennie
hurriedly whispered something to him, and induced him to lend his horse
to carry Rennie on to East Linton. Rennie, who was an astonishingly
active man, vaulted into the saddle, and immediately rode off at full
gallop westwards. The day was a Wednesday, and, as it was already 11
o'clock forenoon, he knew that he had no time to lose; but he was not
the stamp of man to allow the grass to grow under his feet on such an
important occasion. Ere he reached Dunbar the mail was many hundred
yards behind. At his own place at East Linton he drew up, mounted his
favourite horse "Silvertail," which for speed and endurance had no rival
in the county, and again proceeded at the gallop. When he reached the
Grassmarket, Edinburgh--a full hour before the mail,--the grain-selling
was just starting, and before the alarming war news had got time to
spread Rennie had every peck of wheat in the market bought up. He must
have coined an enormous profit by this smart transaction; but to him it
seemed to matter nothing at all. He was one of the most careless of the
harum-scarum sons of Adam, and if he made money easily, so in a like
manner did he let it slip his grip."

The two following instances of the expedients to which merchants
resorted, before the introduction of the telegraph, in cases of urgency,
and when the letter post would not serve them, are given by the author
of _Glasgow Past and Present_, to whose work reference has already been
made:--

"During the French War the premiums of insurance upon running ships
(ships sailing without convoy) were very high, in consequence of which
several of our Glasgow ship-owners who possessed quick-sailing vessels
were in the practice of allowing the expected time of arrival of their
ships closely to approach before they effected insurance upon them, thus
taking the chance of a quick passage being made, and if the ships