SETTLEMENT AT NETHERTON. \2J 



both cruel and kindly, and in envies and contentions. John's 

 opinion of the village was not very high, for he said it was 

 a rough place, " where they strove and fought falternally ; " * 

 adding that " where there is a lot o' wives, there is nae want 

 o' that." John himself, as one of his friends there says, was 

 " a man of peace, whose word was never heard among his 

 contentious neighbours." He thought that the women in 

 Netherton, and everywhere else, indulged in tea far too much, 

 spoiling their own nerves and emptying their husbands' 

 pockets in which he was decidedly right, the over use of 

 tea in rural and Highland districts being still a dissipation 

 of our time. He was, as he had ever been, quiet and retiring, 

 delighting more in his own thoughts than in the pleasure 

 of communicating them. Though he was not given to 

 forming miscellaneous friendships, he cultivated more 

 social life in Netherton than in any other place; for his 

 spirits now began to shake off the domestic sorrows of the 

 past, that had weighed so long and so heavily on his heart, 

 especially after the death of their weak but guilty cause. 



There was the shoemaker, Charles Hunter, a very 

 worthy and intelligent man, who has seen a good deal 

 of the world, and still survives in active work near Netherton, 

 in his sixty-eighth year. Of him John thought very highly, 

 and they became very intimate. Newspapers were then 

 high priced and rare, costing a guinea a year, worth double 

 that sum now ; but, in the village, a club was formed to 

 purchase one, and John and the shoemaker were active 

 promoters of the scheme and diligent readers. Being 

 strong Liberals, they got the Aberdeen Journal till the 

 Disruption in 1843, and after that, the Aberdeen Banner y 

 * A curious form of the word "eternally," or "alternately." 



