BLACK RUSSEL. 423 



and received some little gratuity from the boys besides. 

 Unluckily, on one occasion the key dropped out of his 

 pocket ; and when school time came, the irascible do- 

 minie had to burst open the door with his foot. He 

 raged at the boy with a fury so insane, and beat him with 

 such relentless severity, that the other boys, plucking up 

 heart in the extremity of the case, rose on him in a mass, 

 and tore the poor fellow out of his hands. And such, it 

 is said, was the impression made on the mind of the 

 latter that, though he quitted the school shortly after 

 and plied the profession of a fisherman, until he died, 

 an old man, he was never seen, in all his life from that 

 day, disengaged for a single moment without melan- 

 cholily thrusting his hand into the key pocket. One 

 other anecdote illustrative of Mr Russel's temper. He 

 was passing along the streets of Cromarty on a coarse 

 wintry day some seventy years ago, with his head half 

 buried in his breast, for the day was one of wind and 

 rain from the sea, when he came violently in contact with 

 a thatcher's ladder which had been left sloping from the 

 roof of one of the houses, half-way across the street. 

 A much less matter would have been sufficient to awaken 

 the wrath of Russel. He sprung at the ladder with the 

 ferocity of a tiger, and, dashing it down on the pave- 

 ment, broke with his powerful fist every one of the steps 

 before he quitted it. He was schoolmaster in Cromarty 

 for about twelve years, and for at least the last six of 

 these was not a little popular as a preacher. His manner 

 was strong and energetic; and the natural severity of 

 his temper seems to have been more than genius to him 

 when expatiating, which he did often, on the miseries of 

 the wicked in a future state. I have seen one of the 

 sermons in print ; it is a controversial one, written in a 

 bold, rough style, and by no means very inferior as a 



