[7] _Life of Chalmers_, vol. iv., p. 450. The catastrophe of the last ladleful is not given by Dr. Hanna. [8] _Primitiæ et Ultima, or the Early Labours and Last Remains that will meet the public eye_, etc., etc., _of the late Rev. and learned Mr. Thomas Boston, minister of the Gospel at Ettrick, now first published from his MSS_. In three volumes. Edinburgh, 1800. [9] Many years ago I told this story to my friend Mr. Thomas Constable (son of Scott’s publisher), and a few days thereafter received a note from him asking if I would write it down. This I did, and he told me afterwards that for a time he carried my MS. in his pocket and read from it to his friends, but that the paper becoming tender with frequent use, he had the manuscript thrown into type, struck off a number of copies, and circulated them among his acquaintance. One of these copies must have fallen into the hands of Mr. Mark Boyd, who, in his _Social Gleanings_, London, 1875, p. 57, printed the story as here given. [10] A. Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_ (1900), vol. i. p. 163. [11] _Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, collected entirely from oral sources_, 1900, and _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_, 1902. [12] _Horae Sabbaticae_, by Godfrey Higgins, 1833, p. 2. [13] Higgins, _Horae Sabbaticae_, p. 53. [14] _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_, l. 632. [15] Thus Mrs. Grant of Laggan tells us that she sat up on Sunday night, 17th October, 1794, that she might write a letter to a friend ‘without infringing on a better day.’--_Letters from the Mountains_, 5th edit., vol. iii., p. 14. [16] _Satyre of the Three Estaitis_, Part ii. [17] More ludicrous still was the desire of the Highland porter in Glasgow who, as Dr. Norman Macleod relates, ‘sent his amputated finger to be buried in the graveyard of the parish beside the remains of his kindred. It is said also that a bottle of whisky was sent along with the finger, that it might be entombed with all honour.’ [18] The statistics for Edinburgh University during 1903 show that of the 1451 students of medicine 677 or over 46 per cent. belonged to Scotland; 333, or nearly 23 per cent., were from England and Wales; 118 from Ireland; 72 from India; 232, or about 16 per cent., from British Colonies; and 19 from foreign countries. [19] This story is sometimes said to have been told by the Rev. Dr. Guthrie. It is also reported as having had its origin in a smiddy at Auchtermuchty, in Fife. The idea is probably as old as the human race. The Ayrshire farmer’s expression of it however was a good deal more graphic than Pope’s We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow, Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so. [20] Another version of this story changes the father into the grandmother! [21] _Letters from the Mountains_, 5th edition, vol. ii., p. 124 [22] Burt’s _Letters_, 5th edition (1818), vol. ii., pp. 46, 47.