there ony feck o' thae Brouns? for they tell me they are awfu' poorfu' ' the poopit."

It is said that an infidel, seeking to describe the earnest, impressive style of Brown's preaching, said, “He preached as if Jesus Christ were at his elbow."

When he was a professor at Haddington he felt it right to superintend his students at other than class hours. He was in the habit of visiting them at their lodgings, and occasionally at six or eight in the morning! On one occasion, going to a room where two lodged, one only was up, but the other, hearing John Brown approach, got up and slipped into a dressing closet. The professor asked for him, and being told he was in the closet, replied, "Oh, we're too little there."

On another occasion several of his students were so hot in a discussion that they did not hear him approach: he entered the room and said, no doubt with a hearty laugh, "Gentlemen, the 'Spectator' says never more than six should speak at once."

An excitable lad once waited on him and expressed a desire to be a preacher of the Gospel. Finding him weak in intellect and strong in conceit, Brown advised him to continue at his present occupation. "But," said the young man, “I wish to preach and glorify God." "My young friend," was the reply, "a man may glorify God making broom besoms: stick to your trade, and glorify God by your walk and conversation."

One man opposed his call to Haddington, and when he met Brown on the street said, "Ye see, sir, I canna say what I dinna think, and I think ye're ower young and inexperienced for this charge." "So I think too, David; but it would never do for you and me to gang in the face of the hale congregation."

The author of 'Rab and his Friends' adduces the following "as a singular illustration of the religious teaching of that time, and also of its strength": "A poor old woman, of great worth and excellent understanding, in whose conversation Mr Brown took

much pleasure, was on her deathbed. Wishing to try her faith, he said to her, 'Janet, what would you say, if after all He has done for you, God should let you drop into hell?' E'en's [even as] He likes: if He does, He'll lose mair than I'll do.' There is something not less than sublime in this reply."

A blacksmith of Tranent seeing him approach a house near the smithy on his pony, which was halting, said, "Mr Brown, ye're in the Scripture line the day-the legs o' the lame are not equal.'" The minister replied, “Ay, and it says, 'So is a parable in the mouth of a fool!' In the same book it is written, 'Answer a fool according to his folly: lest he be wise in his own conceit.'"

It is reported that on crossing the Firth of Forth at Queensferry with a Highland laird in the boat, Mr Brown was grieved by the profane words he used. After landing, and the other passengers had dispersed, he approached the laird, and spoke to him respectfully against the bad habit into which he had fallen. The laird courteously thanked him, specially remarking on the thoughtful kindness that did not expose him before their fellow-passengers; -"Had you done that, I might have run you through with my sword."

In 'Hora Subsecivæ' his kinsman narrates the following:

The late Dr Husband of Dunfermline called on him when he was preparing to set out for Gifford, and was beginning to ask him some questions as to the place grace held in the divine economy. "Come away wi' me, and I'll expound that; but when I'm speaking, look you after my feet." They got upon a rough bit of common, and the eager and full-minded old man was in the midst of his unfolding the divine scheme, and his student was drinking in his words, and forgetting his part of the bargain. His master stumbled and fell, and getting up, somewhat sharply said, "James, the grace of God can do much, but it canna gi'e a man common-sense," which is as good theology as sense.

These anecdotes bring the consecrated, yet shrewd and humorous, side of John Brown's character before us, and the portrait will

be completed by the following reference from the delightful pen of the author just quoted :

I doubt not my father regarded this little worn old book [Greek Testament] the sword of the Spirit which his ancestor so nobly won, and wore, and warred with, with not less honest veneration and pride than does his dear friend James Douglas of Cavers the Percy pennon borne away at Otterbourne. When I read, in Uncle William's admirable Life of his father, his own simple story of his early life-his loss of father and mother before he was eleven, his discovering (as true a discovery as Dr Young's of the characters of the Rosetta stone, or Rawlinson's of the cuneiform letters) the Greek characters, his defence of himself against the astonishing and base charge of getting his learning from the devil (that shrewd personage would not have employed him on the Greek Testament), his eager, indomitable study, his running miles to and back again to hear a sermon after folding his sheep at noon, his keeping his family creditably on never more than £50, and for long on £40 a-year, giving largely in charity, and never wanting, as he said, "lying money,”—when I think of all this, I feel what a strong, independent, manly nature he must have had. We all know his saintly character, his devotion to learning, and to the work of preaching and teaching; but he seems to have been like most complete men, full of humour and keen wit.1

Examples of this have already been given, and Abernethy will always be proud that good John Brown of Haddington was one of its sons, and studied his Greek Testament, when a herd-boy, upon its quiet hillsides. It ought to be equally proud that he was the head of the honoured line that produced Dr John Brown, who wrote 'Rab and his Friends,' with the many other delightful essays which have enchanted so many in Scotland, and more still among the English-speaking race over the world.

1 Horæ Subsecivæ, vol. ii. pp. 67, 68.

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CHAPTER XXIX.

BALVAIRD, MUGDRUM, CARPOW, ETC., WITH THEIR HISTORIC FAMILIES-MR RUSKIN, PRINCIPAL TULloch, etc.

THE names and history of some of the families connected with the parish have been considered in connection with the charters and records already quoted, and in drawing our study to a close we must make mention of some other facts and features without which our narrative would be incomplete.

The Castle of Balvaird-an ancient Celtic name, meaning the town of the bard-stands at the top of Glenfarg, and from its lofty situation commands an excellent view over the Eden valley and the Lomonds of Fife. It has been thus described by those competent to speak of its architectural features:

It is a fifteenth-century keep, and presents a fine and rather advanced specimen as regards its planning and arrangements. It is of the common L plan, but the entrance and staircase, instead of being inserted in the thickness of the wall, have a special turret provided for them in the reentering angle. A wider and better staircase is thus obtained than under the old plan of carrying the staircase up in the thickness of the wall.

The ground-floor is vaulted, and contains the usual stores with sleepingloft above. The joists of the sleeping-loft, with an ashler wall supporting them, are still preserved. .

The hall is on the first floor, with private room adjoining in the wing. The fireplace is well preserved, and is a good specimen of fifteenth-century work. There are three large windows with seats, and a fine ambry or