Of oldxit was the custom to bank up the pillars with great masses of flowers and foliage—all very pretty, certainly, and beautifully executed, but one does not see that in Scotland. Last year's scheme was much plainer, yet still handsome, and.this year those responsible made a further improvement. The Town Hall, plain but vast, 's typical of the great banquetting halls of the old feudal Chiefs and for the occasion of the ball it was decorated just as one of those halls might have been, with a mere suggestion of modern ideas.
First to strike the eye was a great painting of Holyrood, with Arthur's Seat in. the background, illuminated by a full moon—than which there are few more beautiful sights in Scotland—taking up almost the whole of the farther end over the platform. The latter had been draped in blue and white and on it were displayed the Society's regalia, including the famous snuff mul] (from which during the evening many with much trembling essayed a pinch of real sneeshin'), and the congratulatory messages received during the day. At the end nearest. the entrance was a. biz Union Jack. Around the hall, in the spaces between the pillars, were the coats of arms of the greater clans and septs, each bordered by a ribbon of the tartan of its particular family. Alternating with these on the pillars and just below were Scottich shields, silvered and bearing stars and thistles. Into each of the big windows on the far side was fitted a silhouette of a piper in the Royal Stewart tartan (designed by Miss McColl). The famous "Saint" has still been insufficiently revived to allow of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.