I was much entertained with the earnestness of this feeling, and the expression of it from an old Scotch lady whose box was not forthcoming at the station where she was to stop.

When urged to be patient, her indignant exclamation was--"I can bear ony pairtings that may be ca'ed for in God's providence; but I _canna stan' pairtin' frae my claes_." The following anecdote from the west exhibits a curious confusion of ideas arising from the old-fashioned prejudice against Frenchmen and their language, which existed in the last generation.

During the long French war, two old ladies in Stranraer were going to the kirk; the one said to the other, "Was it no a wonderfu' thing that the Breetish were aye victorious ower the French in battle ?" "Not a bit," said the other old lady; "dinna ye ken the Breetish aye say their prayers before ga'in into battle ?" The other replied, "But canna the French say their prayers as weel ?" The reply was most characteristic, "Hoot! jabbering bodies, wha could _understan'_ them ?" Some of these ladies, as belonging to the old county families, had very high notions of their own importance, and a great idea of their difference from the burgher families of the town.

I am assured of the truth of the following naive specimen of such family pride:--One of the olden maiden ladies of Montrose called one day on some ladies of one of the families in the neighbourhood, and on being questioned as to the news of the town, said, "News! oh, Bailie----'s eldest son is to be married." "And pray," was the reply, "and pray, Miss -- --, an' fa' ever heard o' a merchant i' the toon o' Montrose _ha'in_ an _eldest son_ ?" The good lady thought that any privilege of primogeniture belonged only to the family of _laird_.
It is a dangerous experiment to try passing off ungrounded claims upon characters of this description.

Many a clever sarcastic reply is on record from Scottish ladies, directed against those who wished to impose upon them some false sentiment.