CROMARTY SOCIETY. 277 



Goethe of this miniature Weimar. The women had their 

 full share of the intellect of the place or more. ' By 

 much the greater half of the collective mind of the town/ 

 says Miller in one of his letters, ( is vested in the ladies/ 

 It speaks for the sterling worth as well as the intellectual 

 penetration of the Cromarty notables that they welcomed 

 to a footing of perfect social equality the man who was 

 to be seen any forenoon, bare-armed, dusty-visaged, 

 with mallet in hand and apron in front, making his 

 bread by cutting inscriptions in the churchyard. With 1 

 Miller any intercourse but that of perfect equality would j 

 EmTBeen impossible. Diffident in company as he was, 

 his pride was as inflexible as that of Burns, and, if pos- 

 sible, more sensitive. The slightest trace of condescend- 

 ing patronage would have driven him away, and for ever. 

 The colonels and captains who were to be found in 

 country towns at this period were generally men of 

 the French war, men who had seen enough of life and 

 action to bring out the stronger lines in their character, 

 men frank of bearing, direct of speech and perfectly 

 brave. In the Highland towns they were likely to be 

 cadets of old Highland houses. Constitutional fond- 

 ness for war, concurrently with shallowness of the 

 paternal purse, had led many such into the army. Pride 

 as well as courage was likely to be hereditary with these 

 military gentlemen, and it is, I repeat, to the credit of 

 those of Cromarty that they recognized Miller for what 

 he was, a man qualified to adorn and delight any circle. 

 Once the singularity of admitting a stone-mason to 

 social fellowship was got over, the charm of Miller's 

 acquaintance would secure his footing. All who knew 

 him with any degree of intimacy have testified to the 

 fascination of his presence. For women in particular 

 his manner and conversation had an exquisite charm. 



