[Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character by Edward Bannerman Ramsay]@TWC D-Link bookReminiscences of Scottish Life and Character CHAPTER THE SIXTH 39/105
Mrs.Helen Carnegy of Craigo, already mentioned, was a thorough specimen of this class.
She lived in Montrose, and died in 1818, at the advanced age of ninety-one.
She was a Jacobite, and very aristocratic in her feelings, but on social terms with many burghers of Montrose, or Munross as it was called.
She preserved a very nice distinction of addresses, suited to the different individuals in the town, according as she placed them in the scale of her consideration. She liked a party at quadrille, and sent out her servant every morning to invite the ladies required to make up the game, and her directions were graduated thus:--"Nelly, ye'll ging to Lady Carnegy's, and mak my compliments, and ask the _honour_ of her ladyship's company, and that of the Miss Carnegys, to tea this evening; and if they canna come, ging to the Miss Mudies, and ask the _pleasure_ of their company; and if they canna come, ye may ging to Miss Hunter and ask the _favour_ of her company and if she canna come, ging to Lucky Spark and _bid her come_." A great confusion existed in the minds of some of those old-fashioned ladies on the subject of modern inventions and usages.
A Montrose old lady protested against the use of steam-vessels, as counteracting the decrees of Providence in going against wind and tide, vehemently asserting, "I would hae naething to say to thae _im-pious_ vessels." Another lady was equally discomposed by the introduction of gas, asking, with much earnestness, "What's to become o' the puir whales' ?" deeming their interests materially affected by this superseding of their oil.
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