38 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



than is the case now. What do we find to-day? I take up a 

 notice, and I find it states: — "Members in arrear are urged to 

 remit at once, when their Transactions will be forwarded." 

 There is no mistake about what is meant there. But in the 

 early years I find this — " Members in arrear are requested to 

 obtain their receipts from the treasurer without further delay." 

 The result in those days was that they did not make a draw of 

 quite 50 per cent, of their subscriptions. The result to-day is 

 there is not more than 10 per cent, outlying. Then, in connec- 

 tion with my investigations, I did not go, like a previous speaker, 

 to the Bible, as I ought to have done, but I went to the Heart 

 of Mid-Lothian, and I wanted to look up really what the context 

 was that gave origin to the Society's motto. The actual words 

 of the old Laird of Dumbiedykes are these: "Jock," he said, 

 " when ye hae naething else to dae, ye may be aye sticking in a 

 tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping," This reminds 

 me that the actual words upon our coat-of-arms are not quite the 

 same as you will find them in the Border edition of Scott, and I 

 commend this difference of reading to the historian of the Society. ^ 

 On looking forward one sentence and looking back one sentence 

 of this advice of the old Laird, I find the following words. Lying 

 in his bed and anticipating death, he advises his son what to do. 

 " If I pay debt," the Laird says, " to other folk, I think they 

 suld pay it to me, that equals aquals. Jock, when ye hae 

 naething else to dae, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be 

 growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping. My father tauld me sae 

 forty years sin', but I ne'er fand time to mind him. Jock, ne'er 

 drink brandy in the morning, it files the stamach sair; gin' ye 

 tak' a morning's draught, let it be aqua mirabilis. . . ." 

 Whether " aqua mirabilis " is the same as Talla water or not, 

 I will refer to ex-Bailie Anderson, but, at any rate, it was the 

 stuff that the old Laird thought was the right thing in the morn- 

 ing. But to what, after all, do we owe the satisfactory position 

 we are in? It seems to me that we owe our position, first of all, 

 to having a good object — an object the attainment of which can 

 injure no one, and can benefit many. And, secondly, we owe 

 our position to the unselfish and untiring efforts of certain high- 

 minded individuals. We have only to look back upon the roll 

 of membership to find out that, after all, the Society owes a very 

 great deal of its prosperity to comparatively few men. You 

 * Selection of motto was left to President and Secretary (vide Minutes). 



