BENEFITS OF CLANSHIP. 153 



The next who entered was the son of a respectable 

 merchant from the neighbouring village (distant sixteen 

 miles) ; he was described to me as a " cannie laddie," 

 who might have turned his hand to anything, but 

 for an unfortunate tendency to roaming habits, which 

 led him to attend all the weddings in the country-side, 

 and militated against application to any regular calling. 

 His conversation certainly surprised me, exhibiting a 

 degree of taste and development of the understanding 

 which I have never met with in one of the same rank 

 on our side the border. 



The third individual whom I shall mention, as 

 bearing upon a circumstance almost peculiar to Scot- 

 land and the Scotch, was a man of a fine open 

 countenance, beaming with intelligence as well as good- 

 nature. Though himself only a shepherd, his father 

 had been a worthy minister of tfce established Church, 

 who, dying at an early age, had left his children totally 

 unprovided for, and they accordingly, forced to shift 

 for themselves as best they could, were content with 

 such vocations as were honest and respectable, though 

 not elevated. 



It seems one of the peculiar features of the Scotch 

 as a nation, that you constantly meet even in the 

 lowest ranks, with persons whose relatives, and fre- 

 quently near relatives, are or have been in a con- 

 siderably higher walk in life. The causes of this are 

 not difficult to trace. The old feelings of clanship, 

 though now for the most part quite in abeyance, have 

 not only stamped their impression on the face of 

 society, but wormed their way deep into its innermost 

 workings. High and low have always been closely 

 knit together. The lowest retainer once called his 

 chief a kinsman ; and not unfrequently the future 



