The procession which at the onset consisted only of the officer and the drummer, and sometimes a file or two of the town-guard, gathered strength as it moved along the line of march, from a constant accession of boys, who were every morning on the look out for this procession, and who preferred, according to their own phrase, “gaun down wi’ the purse,” to any other way. Such a dense mass of these finally surrounded the officer and his attendant drummer that, long before the procession reached Leith, both had wholly disappeared. Nothing of the former remained visible but the purse, and the top of the pole on which it was borne. These, however, projecting above the heads of the crowd, still pointed out the spot where he might be found: of the drummer, no vestige remained; but he was known to exist by the faint and intermittent sounds of his drum. The town-guard also came in for a share of the honours and the business of this festive week. These were marched down to Leith every day in full costume. Having arrived upon the sands, the greater part, along with the drummer, took their station at the starting-point, where the remainder surrounded the heights. The march of these veterans to Leith is thus humorously described by Ferguson:-- “Come, hafe a care (the captain cries), On guns your bagnets thraw: Now mind your manual exercise, And march down row by row. And as they march he’ll glour about, Tent a’ ther cuts an’ scars; Mang these full many a gausy snout Has gusht in birth-day wars Wi’ blude that day.” Campbell, _History of Leith_, 1827, p. 187. RENFREWSHIRE. A very curious custom existed at Greenock, and in the neighbouring town of Port Glasgow, at the fair held on the first Monday in July, and the fourth Tuesday in November. The whole trades of the town, in the dresses of their guilds, with flags and music, each man armed, made a grand rendezvous at the place where the fair was to be held, and with drawn swords and array of guns and pistols, surrounded the booths, and greeted the baillie’s announcement by tuck of drum, “that Greenock Fair was open,” by a tremendous shout, and a struggling fire from every serviceable barrel in the crowd.--_N. &. Q. 1st S._, vol. ix. p. 242. ROXBURGHSHIRE. Haig, in his _History of Kelso_ (1825, p. 107), tells us that in his time the Society of Gardeners, on the second Tuesday in July, the day of their annual general meeting, paraded the streets, accompanied by a band of music, and carrying an elegant device composed of the most beautiful flowers, which, on the company reaching the inn where they dined, was thrown from the window to the crowd, who soon demolished it in a scramble for the flowers.