1838-30. EXCELLENT TALES. 199 



or disprove anything, might be searched in vain for those im- 

 portant records, yclept in law phrase ' washerwomen's bills/ to 

 authenticate this idea). The question was repeated, and the 

 reply ; and at last the youthful philosophers, determined to 

 have ocular demonstration, stripped the Doctor, and behold, 

 like the happy Irishman in Sultan Serendib's tale, he had no 

 shirt at all ! To prevent any bad consequences from the 

 exposure, the Doctor was immediately taken to the nearest 

 public-house, soaked outside and in with whisky, and sent 

 home preserved in spirits." 



" June 22, 1839. 



" As my last letter was steeped to the brim, and overflowing 

 with egotism, my present one shall treat of other folks, and 

 their passing prospects. . . . 



" I urged John Mven, as soon as he came home, to go up for 

 his examination. He arrived last Saturday, adventured passing 

 on Wednesday, and is now half an M.D. I don't know whether 

 I mentioned that David Williamson passed the day before 

 me [the first examination for M.D.] Anyhow, we three callow 

 doctor chicks, as you rightly christen us, had a grand chir- 

 ruping together last night at having broken our shells. I was 

 purveyor of crowdie. 



" I have learned a most excellent tale, illustrating the strange 

 fancies which monomaniacs take, which I think will at least 

 amuse you. A young medico was calling the other day on an 

 old dame in the west end of Princes Street, and found her sitting 

 at tea, the tea-cups being placed on the table without an inter- 

 vening tray. ' You'll be surprised, sir,' says she, ' to see me 

 without a tray ; but you see, Dr. So-and-So took me once up to 

 a tinsmith in the Lawnmarket, and japanned all my arms, and 

 since that time I canna bide a tray.' Some conversation fol- 

 lowed this announcement, and the old lady volunteered the ac- 

 count of the beginning of her monomania. 



" ' You see, sir/ says she, ' my only sister that I liked weel, 

 died, and I was sitting at the fireside, thinking on my sister, 

 honest woman, that was lying dead in her coffin on the bed 

 beside me. And I heard, all of a sudden, an unco noise in the 



