 superstitious opinion that apparitions of this awful kind cannot
arise without a divine fiat.« Dr. Hibbert adds, in a note - »A short time before
the vision, Colonel Gardiner had received a severe fall from his horse. Did the
brain receive some slight degree of injury from the accident, so as to
predispose him to this spiritual illusion?« - (Hibbert's Philosophy of
Apparitions, Edinburgh, 1824, p. 190).
 
13 The courtesy of an invitation to partake a traveller's meal, or at least that
of being invited to share whatever liquor the guest called for, was expected by
certain old landlords in Scotland even in the youth of the author. In requital,
mine host was always furnished with the news of the country, and was probably a
little of a humourist to boot. The devolution of the whole actual business and
drudgery of the inn upon the poor gudewife, was very common among the Scottish
Bonifaces. There was in ancient times, in the city of Edinburgh, a gentleman of
good family, who condescended, in order to gain a livelihood, to become the
nominal keeper of a coffeehouse, one of the first places of the kind which had
been opened in the Scottish metropolis. As usual, it was entirely managed by the
careful and industrious Mrs. B--; while her husband amused himself with field
sports, without troubling his head about the matter. Once upon a time the
premises having taken fire, the husband was met, walking up the High Street
loaded with his guns and fishing-rods, and replied calmly to some one who
inquired after his wife, »that the poor woman was trying to save a parcel of
crockery, and some trumpery books;« the last being those which served her to
conduct the business of the house.
There were many elderly gentlemen in the author's younger days, who still held
it part of the amusement of a journey »to parley with mine host,« who often
resembled, in his quaint humour, mine Host of the Garter in the Merry Wives of
Windsor; or Blague of the George in the Merry Devil of Edmonton. 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
