GENERAL STUDIES IN LATER YEARS. 



visited. One of these intelligent friends was the shoemaker, 

 Willie Williams, who lived over the hill near the Free 

 Church, at the Milton of Cushnie. " Willie's shop," as the 

 Rev. George Williams describes, "was the retreat of the 

 neighbourhood on a rainy or frosty day, for the shoemaker 

 was a good politician, and remarkably gifted with the gab.* 

 When a heel-ring or toe-bit was lost, or when time hung 

 heavy on their hands, the neighbours would dander down 

 to get a crack with the clever souter. A few yards along 

 was the carpenter's shop, reigned over by John Ferries, a 

 very intelligent, humorous and kind-hearted man, whose 

 mother, ' Auld Nanny,' was everybody's mother. The old 

 mill not far off, built a hundred years ago, was worked by 

 John Taylor, a queer, comical fellow, but somewhat of a 

 student. The village of Milton was the centre of the wit 

 and wisdom of the parish, and few villages could boast of so 

 well-read a shoemaker as Willie Williams, of so kind a body 

 as Auld Nanny Smith, or so queer a fish as Jock Taylor." 



The shoemaker's son, Dr. Williams of Tarland, gives 

 a realistic glimpse of the intercourse between John and his 

 father, interesting as exhibiting the weaver in an unusual 

 aspect at this period, which recalls his younger days at 

 Netherton. " John's visits to us on Sundays, as he passed 

 to church, were almost weekly. On other days, they 

 were not very frequent, but, when they did happen, they 

 lasted an hour or two at a time. On these occasions, 

 ordinary local gossip and such small matters were quite 

 beneath notice. The sayings and doings of the highest 

 personages in church and state were duly and deftly 



* That is, good at using his tongue. Gab is from the same root as 

 gabble and gobble. 



