"Ay, my Lord," said the minister, "you are first-rate authority for a case of civil or criminal law, but you do not quite understand our Church Court practice.

We never absolve _till after three several appearances_." The wit and the condition of absolution were alike relished by the judge.

Lord Braxfield closed a long and useful life in 1799.
Of Lord Hermand we have already had occasion to speak, as in fact his name has become in some manner identified with that conviviality which marked almost as a characteristic the Scottish Bench of his time.

He gained, however, great distinction as a judge, and was a capital lawyer.
When at the bar, Lords Newton and Hermand were great friends, and many were the convivial meetings they enjoyed together.

But Lord Hermand outlived all his old last-century contemporaries, and formed with Lord Balgray what we may consider the connecting links between the past and the present race of Scottish lawyers.
Lord Kames was a keen agricultural experimentalist, and in his _Gentleman Farmer_ anticipated many modern improvements.