Things in General; Being Delineations of Persons, Places, Scenes, Circunstances, Situations, and Occurrences in the Metropolis and Other Parts of Britain with an Autobriographic Sketch in Lumine and a Notice Touching Edinburgh (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1825 Excerpt: ... of my failings and failures through life, are points above my philosophy. My father was known, and had laud and estimation throughout the whole village and parish of Monymusk, and I may say throughout the whole country side, --the range whereof was very ample, extending from the summits of Scarsough and Cairngorm to the shores of the German Ocean, and from old Meldrum to the Clach-na-bain, --as a man of wisdom and gravity above his station, and as being more cunning than others in all points and circumstances of his calling. He had, at an early period of life, been promoted to the honorable office of "Bethal" (both sexton and beadle) of the parish; and it was of all admitted that, in no parish of the bounds, were the commands of the minister more promptly obeyed; the dead more speedily or decently interred, or the sedilla or'stool--which is set apart for bringing back those youths w ho go astray in Venus her secret paths--more duly and decorously occupied, than in the parish of Monymusk. So efficacious indeed, were my father, and the stool and Kirk-session, in this wise, that not a few of those, who in their lapse had gone after the episcopalian heresy, did eschew the same, and find sweet consolation and rest upon the said stool; which, in the vernacular, is termed the "cutty-stool: " q. d. the "gritty-stool,"--in that they who have sat thereon, have quitted their past sins, and are prepared for repentance and amendment--or for sinning anew, according to circumstances. Of all the branches of my father's varied and important vocation, there was none however, in which he had more praise, than in the burying of the dead. Such was his dexterity in this mystery, that, when he went unto Old Machar to perform the solemn rite for my worthy gutcher or grandfather, -who ...