l-804. Fii'iu of ihe Skuallon of FitrnierSy is'c. 389 



Catechlfms, and to rend the Bible, which finiflieci tlicir education. 

 Now-a-days, it is common for them to attend the puriOi rLhool- 

 inafter, to leain of him to read, to write, and to c:dt accounts ; 

 and a moderate portion of knowledge is very generally diHufecl 

 among them. Whether this may contribute to the comfort of 

 inen doomed to labour for their daily bread, is a queilion I fhaU 

 not prefunie to determine. 



A more refined Hate of fociety lias rejected tliofe athletic ex- 

 crcifes, in which, in the beginning of my days, the young and 

 healthy employed their leifure hours. There is now no fiveertieCs^ 

 no ivreflwg bouts, at which C****** i?*** in /J*^******* over- 

 came all his competitors *, none of thofe curimg matches, where 

 parifli contended againft parifli ; no wheels are now hurled dowa 

 the Skid Hill ; goff even is fickly ; and, for many years, bullet'ing 

 has not been lieard of in the lower parts of the county. It was 

 like Hinging me with pifmires, to oblerve the puny efforts, in this 

 fcience, of our yeomanry, when lately in quarters at Dunbar ; 

 nor could I, without a figh, compare them with thofe q{ J*** 

 C********** in all his glory. David Mather was a rival of this 

 mighty hero : they played fingle-handed a match at Tranent in 

 the year I75<5. Mather candidly yielded after the firft throw, and 

 buried in two canifters an account of the weight of the bullets, 

 and the diftance which his rival had flung them. The old mini- 

 iler took delight in pointing out to his friends the hmits of liis 

 nephew's wonderful exertion. 



If tradition fhall not have preferved fome faint trace of this 

 fa£^, at the time when future colliers fliall chance to uncover 

 thefe canillers, poflerlty will fufncft the pciFibility of a man 

 having thrown a bullet fo far ; or they'll regard it as Penelope's 

 fuitors regarded the 4)ow of Ulyffes, which they were unable to 

 bend ; or, to take a fmiile nearer our own times, and nearer 

 home, as we look with admiration, not unmixed with doubt, upon 

 the fword of King Robert Bruce, carefully preferved at Dunferm- 

 line, which no degenerate modern is able to wield. 



My relation, f**** ^****** at f*»*****, Hurdily oppofed 

 liimfelf to the growing effeminacy and predilediion for fecicri^ary 

 amufements. Many a ferious conteil had he with his fervants, 

 who was the bed wreftler, or who could carry the heaviell load. 

 It was furmifed at the time, and the anecdote is yet frefh in the 

 memory of many ploughmen in the neighbourhood, that a defeat, 

 on the fame day, by the fame man, in each of thefe elegant ac- 

 complifhments, difguited Jiim fo much, as to occafion his leaving 

 the county. He now refides in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, 

 where he is continually bewailing the effeminate degeneracy of 

 modern times. 



C c 2 IJixty 



