LIFE AND HABITS AT DROUGHSBURN. 297 



the top of the hill, to listen to his discourse about the plants, 

 old times and distant scenes, seasoned with good advice. 



Solemn and scientific, dour and distant, as he looked to 

 many, John had, as we have seen, a secret fund of jollity 

 and humour. He derived the greatest pleasure, for example, 

 from keeping up the innocent old festivals of our fore- 

 fathers, and took an active and independent part in their 

 celebration. He used to hold Halloween in full form, both 

 indoors and out, inviting his friends and especially the 

 children of the neighbourhood to assist him. He raised a 

 great bonfire on the top of the hill behind the house, keeping 

 watch over it himself to prevent its being kindled too soon 

 by mischief-makers, who sometimes tried to do so. He set 

 it on fire in the gloaming, "making a bleeze," as it was 

 called, which was seen far and near, from its elevated central 

 position ; and round it, he made the children join hands and 

 dance hilariously, as in the old days of Baal worship, while 

 he blew a loud blast, from a horn he kept for the purposej 

 which resounded over hill and dale. In the home cere- 

 monies, in which the whole assisted, he joined heartily in all 

 that was done, allowing himself, according to custom, to 

 be led blindfolded to the " kail-yard," or cabbage garden, 

 to pull a " kail-stock," the root stalk of the cabbage. This 

 was duly placed above the door of his shop, to determine his 

 matrimonial fate the name of the first woman that entered 

 showing that of the expected future partner. 



Again, at Yule, that is Christmas, Old Style, on the 5th 

 of January, he entered into all the merry frolics of the time, 

 and into the homely games in which both young and old 

 engaged, such as hide-and-seek, throwing dice for pins, and 

 the like. He also drank "sowens," and carried them to 



