of a word got its full value. When a knot of young advocates was
seen standing round the fireplace of the Parliament Hall listening to a
low muttering voice, and the party suddenly broke up in roars of
laughter, it was pretty certain to be a select company to whom Sir
Walter had been retailing one of the latest stories of Lord Eskgrove.

He was a man of much self-importance, which comes out in his remarks to
a young lady of great beauty who was called as a witness in the trial of
Glengarry for murder. "Young woman, you will now consider yourself as in
the presence of Almighty God, and of this Court; lift up your veil,
throw off all modesty, and look _me_ in the face."

Sir John Henderson of Fordell, a zealous Whig, had long nauseated the
Scottish Civil Courts by his burgh politics. Their lordships of the
Bench had once to fix the amount of some discretionary penalty that he
had incurred. Lord Eskgrove began to give his opinion in a very low
voice, but loud enough to be heard by those next him, to the effect that
the fine ought to be L50, when Sir John, with his usual imprudence,
interrupted him and begged him to raise his voice, adding that if judges
did not speak so as to be heard they might as well not speak at all.
Lord Eskgrove, who could never endure any imputation of bodily
infirmity, asked his neighbour, "What does the fellow say?"--"He says,
that if you don't speak out, you may as well hold your tongue."--"Oh, is
that what he says? My lords, what I was saying was very simpell; I was
only sayingg, that in my humbell opinyon this fine could not be less
than L250 sterlingg"--this sum being roared out as loudly as his old
angry voice could launch it.

A common saying of his to juries was: "And now, gentle-men, having shown
you that the panell's argument is impossibill, I shall now proceed to
show you that it is extremely improbabill."

In condemning some persons to death for breaking into Sir John
Colquhoun's house and assaulting him and others, as well as robbing
them, Eskgrove, after enumerating minutely the details of their crime,
closed his address to the prisoners with this climax: "All this you did;
and God preserve us! juist when they were sitten doon tae their denner."

When condemning a tailor convicted of stabbing a soldier, the offence
was aggravated in Lord Eskgrove's eyes by the fact that "not only did
you murder him, whereby he was berea-ved of his life, but you did
thrust, or push, or pierce, or