A kind Perthshire correspondent has sent me a characteristic anecdote, which has strong internal evidence of being genuine.  When Clerk was raised to the Bench he presented his credentials to the Court, and, according to custom, was received by the presiding Judge—­who, on this occasion, in a somewhat sarcastic tone, referred to the delay which had taken place in his reaching a position for which he had so long been qualified, and to which he must have long aspired.  He hinted at the long absence of the Whig party from political power as the cause of this delay, which offended Clerk; and he paid it off by intimating in his pithy and bitter tone, which he could so well assume, that it was not of so much consequence—­“Because,” as he said, “ye see, my Lord, I was not juist sae sune doited as some o’ your Lordships.”

The following account of his conducting a case is also highly characteristic.  Two individuals, the one a mason, the other a carpenter, both residenters in West Portsburgh, formed a copartnery, and commenced building houses within the boundaries of the burgh corporation.  One of the partners was a freeman, the other not.  The corporation, considering its rights invaded by a non-freeman exercising privileges only accorded to one of their body, brought an action in the Court of Session against the interloper, and his partner as aiding and abetting.  Mr. John Clerk, then an advocate, was engaged for the defendants.  How the cause was decided matters little.  What was really curious in the affair was the naively droll manner in which the advocate for the defence opened his pleading before the Lord Ordinary.  “My Lord,” commenced John, in his purest Doric, at the same time pushing up his spectacles to his brow and hitching his gown over his shoulders, “I wad hae thocht naething o’t (the action), had hooses been a new invention, and my clients been caught ouvertly impingin’ on the patent richts o’ the inventors!”

Of Lord Gardenstone (Francis Garden) I have many early personal reminiscences, as his property of Johnstone was in the Howe of the Mearns, not far from my early home.  He was a man of energy, and promoted improvements in the county with skill and practical sagacity.  His favourite scheme was to establish a flourishing town upon his property, and he spared no pains or expense in promoting the importance of his village of Laurencekirk.  He built an excellent inn, to render it a stage for posting.  He built and endowed an Episcopal chapel for the benefit of his English immigrants, in the vestry of which he placed a most respectable library; and he encouraged manufacturers of all kinds to settle in the place.  Amongst others, as we have seen, came the hatter who found only three hats in the kirk.  His lordship was much taken up with his hotel or inn, and for which he provided a large volume for receiving the written contributions of travellers who frequented it.  It was the landlady’s business to present this