Sometimes the landlady took her share of entertaining the company.

In either case, the omitting to pay them due attention gave displeasure, and perhaps brought down a smart jest, as on the following occasion:-- A jolly dame, who, not 'Sixty Years since,' kept the principal caravansary at Greenlaw in Berwickshire, had the honour to receive under her roof a very worthy clergyman, with three sons of the same profession, each having a cure of souls: be it said in passing, none of the reverend party were reckoned powerful in the pulpit.

After dinner was over, the worthy senior, in the pride of his heart, asked Mrs.
Buchan whether she ever had had such a party in her house before.

'Here sit I,' he said, 'a placed minister of the Kirk of Scotland, and here sit my three sons, each a placed minister of the same kirk .-- confess, Luckie Buchan, you never had such a party in your house before.' The question was not premised by any invitation to sit down and take a glass of wine or the like, so Mrs.B.answered dryly, 'Indeed, Sir, I cannot just say that ever I had such a party in my house before, except once in the forty-five, when I had a Highland piper here, with his three sons, all Highland pipers; AND DEIL A SPRING THEY COULD PLAY AMANG THEM.' NOTE 6 .-- THE CUSTOM OF KEEPING FOOLS I am ignorant how long the ancient and established custom of keeping fools has been disused in England.

Swift writes an epitaph on the Earl of Suffolk's fool,-- 'Whose name was Dickie Pearce.' In Scotland the custom subsisted till late in the last century.