and after being solicitor- and attorney-general, and the chief of the Common Pleas, as Lord Loughborough was not unequal to the duties of the "Marble Chair." Both died childless; but the earls" coronets which their talents had won, have by the favour of the Crown, descended to collateral relations. Thus in the last century, and nearly at the same time, we find these compatriots presiding with marked distinction over the courts of common law and equity in England, and exercising in both houses of Parliament a most powerful and remarkable influence. It is Churchill who says The Scots are poor, cries surly English pride, CHAPTER III. SETTLING DOWN TO COUNTRY LIFE. Scotland at Its arterial IN the latter part of 1789 the active duties of a country gentleman devolved upon me. this time was in great measure isolated. communication was wretched, and the prospects of speedy improvement were not bright. Yet improvement came earlier and was more effective than most of us imagined. Where I lived there were no public conveyances, unless indeed the carrier's cart could be called one; and for the transmission and receipt of our correspondence we were indebted to the slow delivery of that functionary, and in some districts more highly favoured, an antiquated man or woman, cynically named "the runner," made weekly journeys on foot to and from the nearest market-town and represented-I do not say effectively-the present system of postal communication. Those who are accustomed to the convenience of modern conveyances will fail to understand what the discomforts and delays of travelling were then. In 1780 a letter was addressed to the same Lord Braxfield I have been referring to, by Boswell, better known as "Bozzy," who was a member of the bar and the son of a judge, which from its curiosity will repay perusal. It is on the subject of circuit holding in Scotland, and contains a recommendation to the judges not to travel faster than the waggon which carried the "baggage of the circuit." But for years posterior to that date the judges and bar made the circuit of the north on horseback, and were not unfrequently obliged, owing to the flooded state of rivers, to make considerable detours. I recollect when, instead of handsome bridges spanning our rivers, and forming the key-stone of present communication with the south, the traveller had to trust for the conveyance of himself and horse to some rickety ferry-boat, usually under the command of a female, whose husband's more profitable employment elsewhere caused him to depute to her the office of skipper. Until the termination of the war there were no mail coaches north of the Dee. Other public conveyances in their earlier history were extremely irregular, and the Jehus who conducted them were famed for independence and the arbitrary nature of their arrangements. About this period I spent a night at the inn of a provincial town (hotels are very modern institutions), with the intention of taking coach the following morning. I asked the barmaid what was the hour of starting, and received the unsatisfying reply, "Whan Davie (the coachman) rises!" The weather was unpropitious, and Davie preferred his bed to the box. As he was at length getting ready, a countryman, cold and wet, made his appearance, who, anxious to possess the luxury of an inside place, agitatingly inquired, "Are yer insides a' oot?" an inquiry, which, in its literal signification, suggested the possibility of a very uncomfortable condition of affairs. The coaches of those days did not accomplish per diem either long journeys or rapid travelling, although the names which distinguished them, implied both. The Swift, the Express, the Rapid, the Fly, were all popular cognomens; and to be driven fifty miles, at from five to six miles an hour, was a good day's journey and quick locomotion. Of course there was no travelling during the night. Even a fertile country, without roads, is of little value. Our public roads, now, both in respect of condition and management, are efficiently regulated by acts of parliament, but such provisions are comparatively recent, and before their existence, travelling in many districts, except on foot and horseback, was impossible during portions of the year. In the case of Gowrie, one of our best agricultural districts, there was no road prior to 1790 that could admit of carting through the winter and spring months. All produce sent from home, had to be transported on horseback; and such was the slavery of threshing grain and making market of it, that there was difficulty in obtaining the requisite supply of labour. The turnpike act and the judicious application of the statute service money, as well as the energy and public spirit of the landed interest, often powerfully assisted by the municipal authorities, have provided such excellent thoroughfares, as to make the oldest among us wonder how, in their absence, a return to chaos was averted. Parliament fully recognized the importance of turnpikes, and conferred on our entailed proprietors the right of raising money on mortgages for the purposes of their construction, to the extent of a year's rental of the respective estates which they intersected. For the system of road-making now generally in use we are under great obligations to our countryman, Mr. Macadam. Our English neighbours soon discovered its superiority, and fully adopted it, and it is also extensively practised in France. I do not doubt that Gibbon echoed the opinions of his contemporaries with reference to Caledonia, when he described the Romans as turning "with |