Looking back over the greater part of a century, Mrs. Haldane, mother of Lord Haldane, has written her reminiscences for the St. Columba's (Pont Street) "Church Magazine,' London. In simple language Mrs. Haldane sketches the conditions of 90 years ago, and her vivid little pictures serve to show how great has been the progress of the world. Some of her recollections are not of the kind usually found in church magazines, but then she is one of the "old school." Here are some of them:—'When cholera visited the British Isles there was a case in an adjoining farmhouse, and we children were given port wine and ale to strengthen our systems against attack—remedies to which we did not object. In those days children were always given a mug of ale at dinner time. Three days twice a year were spent by the butler brewing ale, and the housekeeper made currant and_ elder-flower wine.'"' Incidentally she mentions that her father, "like all gentlemen," wore stays when hunting.
When still a young girl of 14, Mrs. Haldane was seriously ill, and the only country doctor in a large district, dressed in a bright green frock-coat with brass buttons and corduroy riding breeches and boots," ~=whose medical treatment was limited to bleeding, immediately performed that operation. "The treatment left me weak," adds Mrs. Haldane, and she travelled by post chariot to Edinburgh to recuperate. "Unfortunately it was Fast Day, and no food was to be had for the weary travellers, but by begging and borrowing. At a lodging at Princes Street (supposed to be very good) the maidservant went barefoot and when sent next door to the baker's shop for rolls she came back with the message, 'Maister Mackie winna gie them without the siller.'
The following passage illustrates vividly the gulf which separates our own time from Mrs. Haldane's early years. "I' can remember driving 13 miles to Campo in an open dogcart to meet a dentist. from Neweastle at the inn. We had to drive over the bleak moors during a snowstorm, and not far from the roadside on a gibbet was hanging the effigy of a tramp named Winter who had murdered an old womn in a cottage in sight of the place. I can remember the clanking of the chains to tris
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.