Country ministers, I am told, develop such an acute sense of hearing that they can estimate the amount of the collection before it is counted.

There is often a huge pewter plate just within the church door, in which the offerings are placed as the worshippers enter or leave; and one always notes the preponderance of silver at the morning, and of copper at the evening services.

It is perhaps needless to say that before Francesca had been in Edinburgh a fortnight she asked Mr.Macdonald if it were true that the Scots continued coining the farthing for years and years, merely to have a piece of money serviceable for church offerings! As to social differences in the congregations we are somewhat at sea.
We tried to arrive at a conclusion by the hats and bonnets, than which there is usually no more infallible test.

On our first Sunday we attended the Free Kirk in the morning, and the Established in the evening.

The bonnets of the Free Kirk were so much the more elegant that we said to one another, "This is evidently the church of society, though the adjective 'Free' should by rights attract the masses." On the second Sunday we reversed the order of things, and found the Established bonnets much finer than the Free bonnets, which was a source of mystification to us, until we discovered that it was a question of morning or evening service, not of the form of Presbyterianism.