Note A. BIR GEORGE LOCKHART, President of the Court of Session. He was pistolled in the High Street of Edinburgh, by John Chiesley of Dalry, in the year 1689.

The revenge of this desperate man was stimulated, by an opinion that he had sustained injustice in a decreetarbitral pronounced by the President, assigning an alimentary provision of about L. 93 in favour of his wife and children. He is said at first to have designed to shoot the judge while attending upon divine worship, but was diverted by some feeling concerning the sanctity of the place. After the congre. gation was disinissed, he dogged his victim as far as the head of the close on the south side of the Lawnmarket, in which the President's bouse was situated, and shot him dead as he was about to enter it. This act was done in the presence of numerous spectators. The assassin made no attempt to fly, but boasted of the deed, saying, “I have taught the President how to do justice.” He had at least given him fair warning, as Jack Cade says on a similar occasion. The murderer, after undergoing the torture, by a special act of the Estates of Parliament, was tried before the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, as high sheriff, and condemned to be dragged on a hurdle to the place of execution, to have his right hand struck off while he yet lived, and, finally, to be hung on the gallows with the pistol wherewith ot he President tied round his This execution took place on the 3d of April, 1689; and the incident was long remembered as a dreadful instance of what the law books call the perfervidum ingenium Scotorum.

Some of the more curious had taken a peep into the kitchen, and could see nothing there to realize the prospect held out by the Major- Domo. But punctual as the dinner hour struck on the village-clock, John placed before them a stately rump c? boiled beef, with a proper accompaniment of greens, amply sufficient to dine the whole party, and to decide the bet against those among the visiters who expected to take Jolin napping. The explanation was the same as in the case of Caleb Balderston. John had used the freedom to carry off the kail-pot of a rich old chuff in the village, and bronght it to his master's house, leaving the proprietor and his friends to dine on bread and cheese ; and as John said, “ good enough for them." The fear of giving offence to so many persons of distinction, kept the poor man sufficiently quiet, and he was afterwards remunerated by some indirect patronage, so that the jest was admitted a good one on all sides. In England, at any period, or in some parts of Scotland at the present day, it might not have passed off so well.

Note C. ANCIENT HOSPITALITY. It was once the universal custom to place ale, wine, or some strong liquor, in the chamber of an honoured guest, to assuage his thirst should he feel any on awaking in the night, which, considering that the hospitality of that period often reached excess, was by no means unlikely. The author has met some instances of it in former days, and in old-fashioned families. It was, perhaps, no poetic fiction that records how

“My cummer and I lay down to sleep
With two pint stoups at our bed-feet;
And aye when we waken't we drank them dry:

What think you o' my cummer and I? It is a current story in Teviotdale, that in the house of an ancient family of distinction, much addicted to the Presbyterian cause, a Bible was always put into the sleeping apartment of the guests, along with a bottle of strong ale. On some occasion there was a meeting of clergymen in the vicinity of the castle, all of whom were invited to dinner by the worthy Baronet, and several abode all night. According to the fashion of the times, seven of the reverend guests were allotted to one large barrackroom, which was used on such occasions of extended hospitality. The butler took care that the divines were presented, according to custom, cach with a Bible and a bottle of ale. But after a little consultation among themselves, they are said to have recalled the domestic as he was leaving the apartment. My friend," said one of the venerable guests, "you must know, when we meet together as bretliren, the youngest minister reads aloud a portion of Scripture to the rest; -- only one Bible, therefore, is necessary; take away the other six, and in their place bring six more bottles of ale."

This synod would have suited the “ hermit sage” of Johnson, who answered a pupil who inquired for the real road to happiness, with the celebrated line,

“Come, my lad, and drink some beer!"

Note B. RAID OF CALEB BALDERSTON. The raid of Caleb Balderston on the cooper's kitchen has been universally considered on the southern side of the Tweed as grotesquely and absurdly extravagant. The author can only say, that a similar anecdote was communicated to him, with date and names of the parties, by a noble Earl lately deceased, whose remembrances of former days, both in Scotland and England, while they were given with a felicity and power of humour never to be forgotten by those who had the happiness of meeting his lordslıip in familiar society, were especially in valuable from their extreme accuracy.

Speaking after my kind and lamented informer, with the omission of names only, the anecdote ran thus: - There was a certain bachelor gentleman in one of the midland counties of Scotland, second son of an ancient family, who lived on the fortune of a second son, videlicet, upon some miserably small annuity, which yet was so managed and stretched out by the expedients of his man John, that his master kept the front rank with all the young men of quality in the county, and hunted, dined, diced, and drank with them, upon apparently equal terms.

'It is true, that as the master's society was extremely amusing, his friends contrived to reconcile his man John to accept assistance of various kinds under the rose, which they dared not to have directly offered to his master.

Yet, very consistently with all this good inclination to John, and John's master, it was thought among the young fox-hunters, that it would be an excellent jest, if possible, to take John at fault.

With this intention, and, I think, in consequence of a bet, à party of four or five of these youngsters arrived at the bachelor's little mansion, which was adjacent to a considerable village. Here they alighted a short while before the dinner hour - for it was judged regular to give John's ingenuity a fair start-and, rushing past the astonished domestic, entered the little parlour; and, telling some concerted story of the cause of their invasion, the self-invited guests asked their landlord if he could let them have some dinner. Their friend gave them a hearty and unembarrassed reception, and, for the matter of dinner, referred them to John. He was summoned accordingly -received his master's orders to get dinner ready for the party who had thus unexpectedly arrived ; and, without changing

muscle of his countenance, promised prompt obedience. Great was the speculation of the visiters, and probably of the landlord also, what was to be the issue of John's fair promises.

Note D. APPEAL TO PARLIAMENT. The power of appeal from the Court of Session, the supreme Judges of Scotland, to the Scottish Parliament, in cases of civil right, was fiercely debated before the Union. It was a privilege highly desirable for the subject, as the examination and occasional reversal of their sentences in Parliament, might serve as a check upon the judges, which they greatly required at a time when they were much more distinguished for legal knowledge than for uprightness and integrity.

The members of the Faculty of Advocates, (so the Scottish barristers are termed,) in the year 1674, incurred the violent displeasure of the Court of Session, on account of their refusal to renounce the right of appeal to Parliament; and, by a very arbitrary procedure, the majority of the number were banished from Edinburgh, and consequently deprived of their professional practice for several sessions, or terms. But, by the articles of the Union, an appeal to the British House of Peers has