HUGH MILLER. 109 



joke. Alexander was grave and serious, and never, save on 

 one solitary occasion, did I know him even attempt a jest. 

 On hearing an intelligent but somewhat eccentric neighbour 

 observe, that " all flesh is grass," in a strictly physical sense, 

 seeing that all the flesh of the herbivorous animals is elaborated 

 from vegetation, and all the flesh of the carnivorous animals 

 from that of the herbivorous ones. Uncle Sandy remarked that, 

 knowing as he did the piscivorous habits of the Cromarty folk, 

 he should surely make an exception in his generalization, by 

 admitting that in at least one village "all flesh is fish." My 

 uncle had acquired the trade of the cartwright, and was em- 

 ployed in a workshop at Glasgow at the time the first war of 

 the French Revolution broke out, when, moved by some such 

 spirit as possessed his uncle (the victim of Admiral Vernon's 

 unlucky expedition) or Old Donald Roy, when he buckled 

 himself to his Highland broadsword, and set out in pursuit 0/ 

 the caterans, he entered the navy. . . . 



* Early on the Sabbath evenings I used regularly to attend at 

 my uncle's with two of my maternal cousins, boys of about my 

 own age, and latterly with my two sisters, to be catechized, 

 first on the Shorter Catechism, and then on the Mother's 

 Catechism of Willison. On Willison my uncles always cross- 

 examined us, to make sure that we understood the short and 

 simple questions ; but, apparently regarding the questions of 

 the Shorter Catechism as seed sown for a future day, they were 

 content with having them well fixed in our memories. There 

 was a Sabbath class taught in the parish church at the time by 

 one of the elders ; but Sabbath schools my uncles regarded as 

 merely compensatory institutions, highly creditable to the 

 teachers, but very discreditable indeed to the parents and 

 relatives of the laught ; and so they of course never thought of 



