Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character by Edward Bannerman Ramsay

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I did not know Bishop Cotterell intimately, but I have met
him many times, and I think you very happy in obtaining the
services of a man of such experience, talent, and zeal, in
the good cause of Christian truth.

I am now a very feeble, infirm, old man, toiling in the last
quarter of my 88th year. I ought to be thankful that my mind,
though feeble, remains entire: my memory is often defective,
but I have been enabled, though with great labour to myself,
and with many interruptions, to dictate a preface to a
catalogue published by the university of the older fossils of
our collection. They have kindly printed and given to me some
extra copies of my preface, one of which I will forward to
you by the book-post.

I know it can have no interest to you, excepting, perhaps, a
few paragraphs in the conclusion of only two or three
pages.--I remain, my dear Mr. Malcolm, very faithfully and
gratefully yours, A. SEDGWICK.

I have printed already more than one letter from the Rev. D.T.K.
Drummond, from admiration of their intrinsic merit, and because I wish
here to collect proofs that no diversity of Church rites or Church
policy could separate our Dean from brethren whom he regarded perhaps as
erroneous, but recognised as teaching and leading by the same principles
of freedom, which he himself revered and followed.

Rev. D.T.K. DRUMMOND to DEAN RAMSAY.

Montpelier, Saturday.

My dear Friend--Very many thanks for your most touching note,
and for the extract from your book you so kindly sent me. The
more I look into it the more I like it, and thank God for
the testimony you so unequivocally and fearlessly hear to the
_unity_ of the True Church of Christ of any age, however much
the great army he made up of various sections, of diverse
uniforms, and with special duties to perform.....

Again thanking you very warmly, and earnestly praying for all
the precious consolations of the Great Head of the Church to
be largely vouchsafed to you, believe me to be always most
affectionately yours,

D. T. K. DRUMMOND.

* * * * *

The subject of the following letter cannot be overlooked by a biographer
of Dean Ramsay:--

Rev. Dr. CANDLISH to DEAN RAMSAY.

52 Melville Street, 18th March 1872.

My dear Dean Ramsay--I have just read with most profound
thankfulness and admiration your noble Christian letter in
this day's _Scotsman_. I cannot deny myself the gratification
of expressing my feelings to you in this feeble
acknowledgment. You have done a signal service to the cause
of our Blessed Lord and common Master. I am too infirm to
write more fully all that is in my heart. You will pardon all
defects, and believe me, yours very truly,

ROB. S. CANDLISH.

The letter referred to by the distinguished divine arose out of what is
known in the Scottish Episcopal Church as the _cause celebre_ of the
Bishop of Glasgow against the Bishop of Argyll.

The Rev. Dr. Caird, of the University of Glasgow, having invited the
Bishop of Argyll to preach to a mixed Episcopalian and Presbyterian
congregation, using his Church's liturgy, from the University pulpit of
Glasgow, the Bishop of Glasgow interposed to prevent it.

The interference of the Bishop of Glasgow with his brother prelate of
Argyll called forth a letter from Dean Ramsay, which appeared in the
_Scottish Guardian_ on 15th March 1872, and in the _Scotsman_ three days
later. In it the Dean in fact asserts a religious sympathy towards those
who differ from him, comprehensive enough to include all his Protestant
countrymen.

"In an address to the Bishop of Glasgow, signed by sixty-two clergymen,
it is stated that the service contemplated in the chapel of the
University of Glasgow would be a 'lax proceeding, and fraught with great
injury to the highest interests of the Church,' Accordingly the Bishop
of Glasgow prohibited the service, to guard the Church from complicity
in a measure which he considered subversive of her position in this
country.' In other words," says Dean Ramsay, "we are called upon to
believe that, as members of the Scottish Episcopal Church, it is our
bounden duty to withhold every appearance of any religious sympathy with
our Presbyterian fellow-countrymen and fellow-Christians. I now solemnly
declare for myself that, had I come to the conclusion that such was the
teaching of our Church, and such the views to which I was bound--viz.
that her object was thus to sever man from man, and to maintain that the
service proposed at Glasgow was really 'fraught with great injury to the
highest interests of my Church,' because it would promote union and
peace--the sun should not again set till I had given up all official
connection with a Church of which the foundations and the principles
would be so different from the landmarks and leading manifestations of
our holy faith itself. Were the principles and conduct laid down in this
address and in the answer to it fairly carried out, I cannot see any
other result than the members of our Church considering the whole of
Scotland which is external to our communion as a land of infidels, with
whom we can have no spiritual connection, and whom, indeed, we could
hardly recognise as a Christian people."

The Dean's letter is chiefly remarkable as showing that age had not
frozen his charity. It called forth many letters like that of Dr.
Candlish, and one from the little Somersetshire society which he
loved so well.

JOHN SHEPPARD, Esq., Frome, to DEAN RAMSAY.

The Cottage, Frome, 21st March 1872.

Very dear and reverend Sir--I have to thank you for the
_Scottish Guardian_ which you have kindly sent me. I regret
the divisions which appear to have arisen in your church.
Whatever comes from your pen has special interest for me; and
I am glad to see it (as it always has been) pleading the
cause of Christian charity. It appears to me that the welfare
of your church would have been promoted by acceding to the
invitation,

I think I have mentioned to you that we had lately a visit
from good Archdeacon Sandford, which we much enjoyed. We
learn with sorrow that since attendance at the Convocation
and a stay at Lambeth Palace, he has been suffering great
weakness and exhaustion, and been confined to his bed for a
month. He is now slowly recovering; but we fear his
exertions have been beyond his strength, and that his life
must be very precarious.

I hope your health is not more seriously impaired; but we
must be looking more and more, dear sir, towards the home
which pain and strife cannot enter.

My beloved Susan is very zealous as the animals' friend, and
birds of many sorts welcome and solicit her as their
patroness. She desires to be most kindly remembered to you,
with, my dear Dean, your attached old friend,

JOHN SHEPPARD.

_P.S._--Susan instructs me to say for her that, "since
reading your letter to the _Guardian_, she loves you more
than ever, if possible." My words are cool in comparison with
hers; and this is a curious message for an ancient husband
to convey.

She thinks we have not thanked you for the Bishop's Latin
verses and the translations of them. If we have not, it is
not because our "_reminiscences_" of you are faint or few.

I wish to preserve a note of a dear old friend of my own, whose talents,
perhaps I might say whose genius, was only shrouded by his modesty. I
know that the Dean felt how gratifying it was to find among his
congregation men of such accomplishment, such scholarship, as George
Moir and George Dundas, and it is something to show that they responded
very heartily to that feeling.

GEORGE MOIR to DEAN RAMSAY.

Monday morning, 14 Charlotte Square.

My dear Dean--My condition renders it frequently impossible
to attend church, from the difficulty I have in remaining for
any length of time. But I have been able to be present the
last two Sundays, and I cannot refrain from saying with how
much pleasure I listened yesterday to your discourse on
charity. It was not unworthy of the beautiful passage which
formed its ground-work; clear, consecutive, eloquent, and
with a moral application of which I wish we may all avail
ourselves.

Long may you continue to advise and instruct those who are
_to come after me_.

I was delighted to see you looking so well, and to notice the
look of vigour with which the discourse was delivered.
Believe me ever most truly yours, GEO. MOIR.

In 1866 the Dean had delivered two lectures upon "Preachers and
Preaching," but which were afterwards published in a volume called
_Pulpit Table-Talk_. That is the subject of the following letter from a
great master of the art:--

Dr. GUTHRIE to DEAN RAMSAY.

Inchgrundle, Tarfside, by Brechin,

31st August 1868.

My dear Mr. Dean--Your Pulpit Table-Talk has been sent here
to gratify, delight, and edify me. A most entertaining book;
and full of wise and admirable sentiments. All ministers and
preachers should read and digest it. Age seems to have no
more dulling effect on you than it had on Sir David Brewster,
who retained, after he had turned the threescore and ten, all
the greenery, foliage, and flowers of youth--presenting at
once the freshness of Spring, and the flowers of Summer, and
the precious fruits of Autumn.

May your bow long abide in strength! and the evening of your
days be calm and peaceful, bright with the sure and certain
hope of that better world, where, I hope, we shall meet to be
for ever with the Lord! With the greatest respect and
affectionate regards, yours ever,

THOMAS GUTHRIE.

I cannot fix the date of the following anecdote, nor does the date much
matter:--Some years ago a child, the son of the U.P. minister of
Dunblane, was so dangerously ill, that a neighbouring lady, the wife of
the Episcopal clergyman, who was much interested in the little boy,
asked her husband if it might be permitted to beg the prayers of the
congregation for his recovery. The clergyman readily assented; and when
the facts came to the knowledge of Dean Ramsay, and that it was a
suggestion of a dear friend of his, he sent the lady a copy of his
_Reminiscences_, with a letter to her husband, in which he says--"I was
greatly charmed with your account of prayers offered up for poor little
Blair. Tell your Mary I love her more than ever. It has quite affected
me, her proposing it." The husband is the Rev. Mr. Malcolm; the lady his
wife, daughter of the Dean's dear friend, Bishop Terrot.

But the end was approaching. In December 1872 it was noticed with sorrow
that for the first time since the commencement of the Church Society
(1838), of which Ramsay was really the founder, the Dean was absent from
the annual meeting of the general committee. Soon it became known that
his illness was more than a mere passing attack. During its continuance
the deepest interest was manifested in every quarter. Each day, and
"almost from hour to hour, the latest tidings were eagerly sought for.
In many churches and in many families besides those of our communion,
prayers were offered for his recovery. And when at last it became known
that he had indeed passed away from this life, it was felt that we had
lost not only a venerable Father of the Church, but one whose name,
familiar as a household word, was always associated with kindly loving
thoughts and deeds--one who was deservedly welcome wherever he went, and
whose influence was always towards peace and goodwill." The Rev. Mr.
Montgomery, our present Dean of Edinburgh, whose words I quote, truly
says that "he was a Churchman by conviction, but was ever ready to meet,
and, where occasion offered, to act with others upon the basis of a
common humanity and common Christianity."

FOOTNOTES:

[9] The margin seems to show that this page of the journal was not
written till 1843.

[10] The Bishop said that the two impediments to profitable or amusing
conversation were _humdrum_ and _humbug_.

On another occasion, the Bishop having expressed his doubt of the truth
of spirit-rapping, table-turning, etc., and being pressed with the
appeal, "Surely you must admit these are indications of Satanic agency,"
quietly answered, "It may be so, but it must be a mark of Satan being in
a state of dotage!"

[11] Alluditur ad titulum libri _Reminiscences_, etc.

[12] Here is the passage referred to by Mr. Dickens:--"There are persons
who do not sympathise with my great desire to preserve and to
disseminate these specimens of Scottish humour; indeed, I have reasons
to suspect that some have been disposed to consider the time and
attention which I have given to the subject as ill-bestowed, or at any
rate, as somewhat unsuitable to one of my advanced age and sacred
profession. If any persons do really think so, all I can say is, I do
not agree with them. National peculiarities must ever form an
interesting and improving study, inasmuch as it is a study of human
nature; and the anecdotes of this volume all tend to illustrate features
of the Scottish mind, which, as moral and religious traits of character,
are deeply interesting. I am convinced that every one, whether clergyman
or layman, who contributes to the innocent enjoyment of human life, has
joined in a good work, inasmuch as he has diminished the inducement to
_vicious_ indulgence. God knows there is enough of sin and of sorrow in
the world to make sad the heart of every Christian man. No one, I think,
need be ashamed of his endeavours to cheer the darker hours of his
fellow-travellers' steps through life, or to beguile the hearts of the
weary and the heavy laden, if only for a time, into cheerful and amusing
trains of thought. So far as my experience of life goes, I have never
found that the cause of morality and religion was promoted by sternly
checking the tendencies of our nature to relaxation and amusement. If
mankind be too ready to enter upon pleasures which are dangerous or
questionable, it is the part of wisdom and of prudence to supply them
with sources of interest, the enjoyment of which are innocent and
permissible."

APPENDIX.

* * * * *

When this Memoir was only begun I was anxious to say something of the
Dean's musical powers; and, not venturing to speak of music myself, I
asked the Dean's sister Lady Burnett to supply my deficiency. In reply I
had the following letter:--

22d February 1873.

... As a flute-player the Dean attained a proficiency rarely
seen in an amateur, and used frequently to play the very
difficult flute-obligatos of some of Handel's songs, which
are considered a hard task even for professionals. Besides
playing the flute he was thoroughly conversant with the
mechanism of the organ, and had some knowledge of the
violoncello, though he never gave much time to the study of
that instrument. But perhaps the most interesting point in
this part of the character of my brother was his ardent love
for Handel's music. There was not a song or chorus of the
great master that he was not acquainted with, and in his
younger days he used to sing the bass music from the Messiah
and other Oratorios with great taste and skill--his voice, a
fine mellow baritone, being well suited to these songs. You
may remember his lectures on Handel delivered at the
Philosophical Institution some years ago, and how
enthusiastic he was when describing the manifold beauties of
his favourite composer, and how interested and eager he
became when the choir sang the music he knew and loved
so well....

I wrote this on Saturday evening when sitting alone,
thinking of the great loss I had sustained; the variety there
was in Edward's character; how accomplished he was; what
knowledge he had on many subjects; his fine taste, his
gentleness and Christian piety; and then his strong sense of
humour and fun; how amusing he was, and such droll things
broke out every now and then! even to the very last so genial
and social, and altogether such a man that we "ne'er shall
look upon his like again."--Yours very sincerely, LAUDERDALE
BURNETT.

REMINISCENCES.

PREFACE

TO

TWENTY-SECOND EDITION.

In preparing another duodecimo edition of the "Reminiscences of Scottish
Life and Character," I gladly avail myself of the opportunity afforded
me of reproducing some of the materials which had been added to the
octavo edition, especially that part at page 322, etc., which advocated
a modified interchange of pulpits between Episcopalian and Presbyterian
clergymen; to add also some excellent Scottish stories which had been
sent to me by kind friends. I am desirous also of repeating the
correction of an error into which we had fallen in copying the account
of a toast in the Highland form, which had been kindly contributed by
the respected minister of Moulin, in the octavo edition at page 70. To
Lowland conceptions, the whole proceeding has somewhat the appearance of
a respectable company at once becoming insane; still it ought to be
correct, and the printer had, by mistake, inserted a word that has no
existence in the Gaelic language. The text reads--

"Lud ris! Lud ris! You again! you again!"

It should be

Sud ris! Sud ris! Yon again! yon again!

that is--"you cheer again."

The demand for a twenty-second edition of a volume of "Scottish
Reminiscences" embracing subjects which are necessarily of a limited and
local character--a demand which has taken place during the course of
little more than fifteen years since its first publication--proves, I
think, the correctness of the idea upon which it was first
undertaken--viz. that it should depict a phase of national manners which
was fast passing away, and thus, in however humble a department,
contribute something to the materials of history, by exhibiting social
customs and habits of thought which at a particular era were
characteristic of a race. It may perhaps be very fairly said that the
Reminiscences came out at a time specially suitable to rescue these
features of national life and character from oblivion. They had _begun_
to fade away, and many had, to the present generation, become obsolete.

To those who have not given their attention to the subject for the
elucidation of which this volume has been written, I would present two
specimens of the sort of materials from which they may expect to find
these Reminiscences are compiled. They are chosen to indicate a style of
life and manners now fast fading away, and are taken from a period which
lies within the scope of our own recollections. Now, a subject like this
can only be illustrated by a copious application of anecdotes which must
show the features of the past. And let me premise that I make use of
anecdotes not for the purpose of telling a good story, but solely in the
way of _illustration_. I am quite certain that there was an originality,
a dry and humorous mode of viewing persons and events, quite _peculiar_
to the older Scottish characters. And I am equally certain, that their
peculiar humour can only be exhibited in examples. From the late Mr.
Erskine of Linlathan I received the following:--Mr. Erskine recollected
an old housekeeper at Airth, who belonged to this class of character. A
speech of this Mrs. Henderson was preserved in the family as having been
made by her at the time of the execution of Louis XVI. in 1793. She was
noticing the violent emotion exhibited by Mr. Bruce of Kinnaird, the
Abyssinian traveller, at the sad event which had just taken place, and
added, in the following quaint and caustic terms, "There's Kinnaird
greeting as if there was nae a saunt on earth but himsel' and the king
o' France." How utterly unlike anything that would be said on such an
occasion by an English person in the same position in life!

For the same purpose, let me introduce a characteristic little Scottish
scene, which my cousin, the late Sir Thomas Burnett of Leys, used to
describe with great humour. Sir Thomas had a tenant on his estate, a
very shrewd clever man, whom he was sometimes in the habit of consulting
about country matters. On one occasion he came over to Crathes Castle,
and asked to see Sir Thomas. He was accordingly ushered in, accompanied
by a young man of very simple appearance, who gazed about the room in a
stupid vacant manner. The old man began by saying that he understood
there was a farm on the estate to be let, and that he knew a very fine
young man whom he wished to recommend as tenant. He said he had plenty
of _siller_, and had studied farming on the most approved
principles--sheep-farming in the Highlands, cattle-farming in the
Lowlands, and so forth, and, in short, was a model farmer. When he had
finished his statement, Sir Thomas, looking very significantly at his
companion, addressed the old man (as he was usually addressed in the
county by the name of his farm)--"Well, Drummy, and is this your friend
whom you propose for the farm?" to which Drummy replied, "Oh fie, na.
Hout! that is a kind o' a _Feel_, a friend (_i.e._ a relation) o' the
wife's, and I just brought him ower wi' me to show him the place."

The question of change in the "life and character" of a people, during
the period embraced in the reminiscences of an aged individual, must
always be a subject for deep and serious consideration. In the case of
Scotland, such changes comprise much that is interesting and amusing.
But they also contain much matter for serious thought and reflection to
the lovers of their country. In preparing the present edition of these
Reminiscences, I have marked out many further changes, and have marked
them from a deep feeling of interest in the moral and religious
improvement of my country. To my readers I say that I hope we have all
learned to view such changes under a more serious national aspect than a
mere question of amusement or speculation. The Christian, when he looks
around him on society, must observe many things which, as a patriot, he
wishes might be permanent, and he marks many things which, as a patriot,
he wishes were obliterated. What he desires should be enduring in his
countrymen is, that abiding attributes of Scottish character should be
associated amongst all men with truth and virtue--with honour and kindly
feelings--with temperance and self-denial--with divine faith and
love--with generosity and benevolence. On the other hand, he desires
that what may become questions of tradition, and, in regard to his own
land, REMINISCENCES of Scottish life, shall be--cowardice and folly,
deceit and fraud, the low and selfish motives to action which make men
traitors to their God and hateful to their fellow-men.

It would be worse than affectation--it would be ingratitude--to disclaim
being deeply impressed by the favourable reception which has for so long
a time been given to these Reminiscences at home, in India, in America,
and in all countries where Scotchmen are to be found.

It is not the least of the enjoyments which I have had in compiling
these pages, to hear of the kind sympathy which they have called forth
in other minds, and often in the minds of strangers; and it would be
difficult for me to describe the pleasure I have received when told by a
friend that this work had cheered him in the hour of depression or of
sickness--that even for a few moments it may have beguiled the weight of
corroding care and worldly anxiety. I have been desirous of saying a
word in favour of old Scottish life; and with some minds, perhaps, the
book may have promoted a more kindly feeling towards hearts and heads of
bygone days. And certainly I can now truly say, that my highest
reward--my greatest honour and gratification--would spring from the
feeling that it might become a standard volume in Scottish cottage
libraries, and that by the firesides of Scotland these pages might
become as Household Words.

EDINBURGH, 23 AINSLIE PLACE.
_St. Andrew's Day_[13]

FOOTNOTES:

[13] These words, "St. Andrew's Day," were deleted by the Dean; and
though he lived till the 27th December, he did not touch the
proof-sheets after the 19th November 1872.

REMINISCENCES

OF

SCOTTISH LIFE AND CHARACTER.

* * * * *

CHAPTER THE FIRST.

INTRODUCTORY.

I wish my readers always to bear in mind that these Reminiscences are
meant to bear upon the changes which would include just such a
revolution as that referred to at page 15 in the bonnet practice of
Laurencekirk. There is no pretension to any researches of _antiquarian_
character; they are in fact Reminiscences which come almost within
personal recognition. A kind friend gave me anecdotes of the past in her
hundredth year. In early life I was myself consigned to the care of my
grand-uncle, Sir Alexander Ramsay, residing in Yorkshire, and he was
born in 1715; so that I can go pretty far back on my own experience, and
have thus become cognisant of many changes which might be expected as a
consequence of such experience.

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