382 ARIADNE FLORENTINA. 



prison, where they were of no use either to himself or to the 

 community. This worthy man had been educated for a priest ; 

 but he would say to me, l Of a " trouth," Thomas, I did not 

 like their ways.' So he gave up the thoughts of being a priest, 

 and bent his way from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, where he en- 

 gaged himself to Allan Ramsay, the poet, then a bookseller at 

 the latter place, in whose service he was both shopman and 

 bookbinder. From Edinburgh he came to Newcastle. Gil- 

 bert had had a liberal education bestowed upon him. He had 

 read a great deal, and had reflected upon what he had read. 

 This, with his retentive memory, enabled him to be a pleasant 

 and communicative companion. I lived in habits of intimacy 

 with him to the end of his life ; and, when he died, I, with 

 others of his friends, attended his remains to the grave at 

 the Ballast Hills." 



And what graving on the sacred cliffs of Egypt ever hon- 

 oured them, as that grass-dimmed furrow does the mounds of 

 our Northern land ? 



