SOLDIERING. 73 



that a well-conditioned man was well treated in the militia, 

 and had a good opportunity of doing well. 



John used to relate some of his experiences as a soldier. 

 The first time he saw a balloon was at an inspection, when 

 one was sent up from the barracks, on the Queen's birth- 

 day, carrying a cat in the car, and bearing it south across 

 the Dee. The crowd drawn by the spectacle was very 

 great, and John was in danger of being crushed. On 

 another occasion, he suffered more seriously. 



Riots were then of frequent occurrence in the larger 

 towns, chiefly through political excitement, and Aberdeen 

 was no exception. A serious riot occurred there in 1802, 

 at George the Third's birthday, when the soldiers were 

 called out to quell the mob; another took place in 

 December, 1831, when they burnt down Dr. Moir's 

 Anatomical Theatre, one of the first of its kind in the 

 north, generally known as the " Burkin' House," from the 

 universal scare against anatomy excited by the Burke 

 and Hare murders in Edinburgh, in 1828. It was in a Meal 

 mob which took place before this, that Thorn, the poet, 

 was apprehended, and, while in prison, wrote his first 

 poem, which was thus, as he calls it, "jail born," beginning, 



" They speak o' wyles in woman's smiles." 



At one of these birthday celebrations about this period, 

 in which the rabble thought themselves entitled to license, 

 and often indulged it to the danger of their quieter fellow- 

 citizens, John went like others to see. The fun soon 

 degenerated into serious disturbance, which raged round 

 the town house and harbour, and the military had to be 

 marched from the barracks to drive back the mob. John 



