land, or Border between Scotland and England, in which
each party tried to rob the other of their playthings. The little ones
were always compelled to be English, for the bigger girls thought it too
degrading.

Lady Hope, a relative of my mother, frequently invited me to spend
Saturday at Pinkie. She was a very ladylike person, in delicate health,
and with cold manners. Sir Archibald was stout, loud, passionate, and
devoted to hunting. I amused myself in the grounds, a good deal afraid
of a turkey-cock, who was pugnacious and defiant.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Sir William Fairfax was the son of Joseph Fairfax, Esq., of
Bagshot, in the county of Surrey, who died in 1783, aged 77, having
served in the army previous to 1745. It is understood that his family
was descended from the Fairfaxes of Walton, in Yorkshire, the main
branch of which were created Viscounts Fairfax of Emly, in the peerage
of Ireland (now extinct), and a younger branch Barons Fairfax of
Cameron, in the peerage of Scotland. Of the last-named was the great
Lord Fairfax, Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the Parliament,
1645-50, whose title is now held by the eleventh Lord Fairfax, a
resident in the United States of America.]

[Footnote 2: Wife of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Somerville, minister of
Jedburgh, already mentioned (p. 2). Dr. Somerville was author of
Histories of Queen Anne and of William and Mary, and also of an
autobiography.]

CHAPTER II.

FREEDOM--RELIGIOUS EDUCATION--JEDBURGH.

[My mother remained at school at Musselburgh for a twelvemonth, till
she was eleven years old. After this prolonged and elaborate
education, she was recalled to Burntisland, and the results of the
process she had undergone are detailed in her "Recollections" with
much drollery.]

* * * * *

Soon after my return home I received a note from a lady in the
neighbourhood, inquiring for my mother, who had been ill. This note
greatly distressed me, for my half-text writing was as bad as possible,
and I could neither compose an answer nor spell the words. My eldest
cousin, Miss Somerville, a grown-up young lady, then with us, got me out
of this scrape, but I soon got myself into another, by writing to my
brother in Edinburgh that I had sent him a bank-_knot_ (note) to buy
something for me. The school at Musselburgh was expensive, and I was
reproached with having cost so much money in vain. My mother said she
would h