Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/scottishreminisc00geikuoft Transcriber’s note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). A caret character is used to denote superscription. A single character following the caret is superscripted (example: Matthe^w). Multiple superscripted characters are enclosed by curly brackets (example: 12^{th}). Other notes will be found at the end of this document. SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES * * * * * * PUBLISHED BY JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, GLASGOW Publishers to the University. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. _New York_, _The Macmillan Co._ _London_, _Simpkin, Hamilton and Co._ _Cambridge_, _Bowes and Bowes._ _Edinburgh_, _Douglas and Foulis._ MCMVIII. * * * * * * SCOTTISH · REMINIS- CENCES ❧ ❧ BY SIR ARCHIBALD·GEIKIE·K.C.B. Glasgow · James · MacLehose and · Sons · Publishers · to The · University · 1908 First Edition, April, 1904. Reprinted April 1904, 1905, 1908. Glasgow: Printed at the University Press by Robert MacLehose and Co. Ltd. FROM THE PREFACE. One who has sojourned in every part of a country and for sixty years has mingled with all classes of its inhabitants; who has watched the decay and disappearance of old, and the uprise of new usages; who has been ever on the outlook for illustrations of native humour, and who has been in the habit all along of freely recounting his experiences to his friends, may perhaps be forgiven if he ventures to put forth some record of what he has seen and heard, as a slight contribution to the history of social changes. Literature is rich in Scottish reminiscences of this kind, so rich indeed that a writer who adds another volume to the long list runs great risk of repeating what has already been told. I have done my best to avoid this danger by turning over the pages of as many books of this class as I have been able to lay hands upon. In the course of this reading I have discovered that not a few of the ‘stories’ which I picked up long ago have found their way into print. These I have generally excluded from the present volume, save in cases where my version seemed to me better than that which had been published. But with all my care I cannot hope to have wholly escaped from pitfalls of this nature.