242 DECENTLY AND IN ORDER 



cause of its transportation to this distant island. 

 What a space of centuries is covered by these two 

 memorials ! Has the message of the first been a 

 failure ? If not, how explain the scale of our annual 

 war estimates ? What connection with either has the 

 Tsar's pacific rescript of yesterday or President Kruger's 

 bold defiance to-day ? 



This train of vague musing is interrupted by the 

 appearance of the minister on the steps, bible in hand. 

 He wears no gown ; and though his white head is bare, 

 we remain covered while he reads a chapter from the 

 Old Testament and another from the New ; but when 

 he closes the book, we all doff our hats while he offers 

 an unwritten prayer. We have no ritual in Scotland 

 we are inclined to plume ourselves on that but not 

 the less are we scrupulous to conform to etiquette, 

 custom, or whatever it is that prescribes exactly what 

 to do at each part of the ceremony. 



The prayer over, we get into carriages of various 

 kinds 'machines' we call them here and, forming 

 an unpretentious procession, wind slowly down the 

 approach, out among the recent stubbles, through the 

 little seaport town, where flags drop at half-mast on 

 the few craft in harbour, and so for some miles to the 

 solitary kirk with its green fold under the sighing ash- 

 trees. Green and grey those are the dominant tones 

 in the landscape ; and so we lay the grey hairs under 

 the green turf, and part, with no more said. 



