452 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



hortation. Before him sat " the Men," in full camlet canon- 

 icals. Only two had the cotton hood ; the rest wore red or 

 brown scratch-wigs, which so enhanced their natural or as- 

 sumed gravity, as to be perfectly grotesque. They were con- 

 siderably above middle age, though not very old. The most 

 prominent was the best specimen. He concluded with a 

 prayer in a low tone, and was really a prepossessing old man. 

 His neighbour on the right was a truculent fellow, whose red 

 swollen face too plainly intimated that neat whisky was the 

 spirit that oftenest moved him; while he on the left, with a 

 fiery-red wig and sharp-cut features, had that sinister expres- 

 sion of sly cunning, so especially repulsive, and most fre- 

 quently found among the lower orders. They appeared to sit 

 in judgment on the preacher ; and you could almost read in 

 their critical faces that they thought him " a fine lad, if he 

 had exparience." The women were mostly dressed in cloak, 

 hood, and coif, which added to the simple effect of the whole ; 

 and when the nasal Gaelic psalm rose from the heathery brae, 

 it was, barring " the Men," almost sublime. After the con- 

 gregation broke up and the three ministers descended from 

 the tent, they, like good schoolboys, sheepishly shook hands 

 with all their masters, " the Men," in turn. 



None of the ministers under " the Men's " surveillance wear 

 either gown or bands. Popish vestiges themselves, they call 

 the gown and bands Popish in a minister, and are jealous, I 

 suppose, of this infringement on the prerogative of camlet and 

 scratch-wig ! A northern presentee to a church took his 

 revenge on going South, by mounting bands as a flag of 

 triumph, and never doffing them till he reached the end of 

 his journey at Dunkeld. Another less fortunate aspirant for 

 bands supplied their place at the " trial " sermon, by pinning 

 his Crimean medal outside his gown, to enlist the sympathy 

 of his audience. That the bands had some mysterious power, 

 a late Free Church professor fully proved, and fairly owned : 

 for, when preaching in the Isle of May, seeing the lighthouse- 



