206 EDITOR. 



assured position in society finds himself approached 

 by a person who has been transformed from an in- 

 competent artisan into a shabby-genteel hanger-on of 

 literature, he has an instinctive suspicion that the gen- 

 tleman of the press will beg. No such suspicion in re- 

 lation to Hugh Miller could hold its place in the mind 

 of any one who was three minutes in his company. 

 His keen interest, and considerable acquirements, in 

 geological science, had brought him into intercourse 

 with the Messrs Anderson of Inverness, and made him 

 known to every enthusiast in geological or antiquarian 

 research in the north of Scotland. Mr Carruthers 

 will stand well for the literary culture of the northern 

 counties, and he was not the sole cultivator of literature 

 in those parts who had formed high expectations of 

 Miller's future career as a man of letters. He had noAv 

 been for five years connected with the Bank, and this 

 sufficed to place him behind the scenes with regard to 

 all business operations in the district, and to make his 

 name known to its men of capital. Enough : Hugh 

 Miller was already a public man in the north of Scot- 

 land ; and, ere he departed for Edinburgh, a number of 

 his friends and admirers entertained him at a public 

 dinner in Cromarty, and presented him with a tea- 

 service in plate. Seldom has a demonstration of the 

 kind attested a warmer or more sincere feeling on the one 

 hand or been more honourably earned on the other. 

 Those who had watched Miller most closely and who 

 knew him best stepped forward to declare that they 

 loved him and considered him a credit to them. 



The best room in the best Cromarty Hotel was tastefully laid out 

 and lighted for the occasion. The dinner and wines gave complete 

 satisfaction. The chair was taken by George Cameron, Esq., Sheriff 

 Substitute of the eastern district of Ross-shire, supported by General 

 Sir Hugh Eraser, Captain Mackay Sutherland of Udale, the Rev. 



