" "What do you mean, Dauvid?" exclaimed his astonished
master; "what can _you_ have to do with Doctor?" "Weel, ye
see, sir," said David, looking very knowing, "when ye got
your degree, I thought that as I had saved a little money, I
couldna lay it out better, as being betheral of the church,
than tak out a degree to mysell." The story bears upon the
practice, whether a real or a supposed one; and we may fairly
say that under such principals as Shairp, Tulloch, Campbell,
Barclay, who now adorn the Scottish universities, we have a
guarantee that such reports must continue to be Reminiscence
and traditional only.
FOOTNOTES:
[42] Bear.
[43] Rev. R. Scott of Cranwell.
[44] I have derived some information from a curious book, "Kay's
Portraits," 2 vols. The work is scarcely known in England, and is
becoming rare in Scotland. "Nothing can be more valuable in the way of
engraved portraits than these representations of the distinguished men
who adorned Edinburgh in the latter part of the eighteenth
century."--_Chambers_.
[45] Origin and Progress of Language.
[46] Douglas' Peerage, vol. i. p. 22.
[47] The version I have given of this amusing burlesque was revised by
the late Mr. Pagan, Cupar-Fife, and corrected from his own manuscript
copy, which he had procured from authentic sources about forty
years ago.
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