The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1869-10-05 00:00:00

seorrtsn CONVIVIALITY.

"It n :lordly possible," say. Lard Cockburn, to
reallso. •:,Iso arenas which took place in society fifty pony,
lack. In many houses, when • party dined, the ladies
ardor; any Was the signal for the commeneement of •
sYstit An of oomialsory conviviality. No one was ailoced
iu 5 airk. No dayliebt, no in clues.' was the wretched
jar pm in which were expressed the proprietor! and
tin • duty of seeing that the glass when tilled, must be
en rptied and drained. The supper, which caret after
.15 early Scotch dinner. had a peculiar tentleucy to
fi seer these toping customs. The muter of the
P "id, ' Let there be tumblers,' and there were tum.ri
o more senses than one, the guests at these symposia
frequently disappearing beneath the table. It was
Lot a custom merely, butt involved' • different moral
view, and theory of nodal life. The duty of hospitality
was so misinterpreted that, in one cam which he
elections. a London merchant, of formal manners and
temperate habits, wax pursued from the table of his
host to his bedroom. and bottles and glasses were
brought to his bedside when, loosing all patience, the
wretelied victim gatet:4 cut in his Indignation, • Sr,
your lio.pitality borders upoo brutality.'
Of this deep-rootorl character, Dean Ramsay relates
the tenoning illustration, communioated to hale as
coming from Mr. Mackenzie, the well-known author of
the "Man of Feeling." Mackenzie, had been
involved in • regular drinking party, and was keeping
as free from the usual exc saes as he was able, when, as
he marked companions around him fellin4 victim. to
the power of drink, Lis attention was called to a small
pair of hands twit were working at his throat. On
asking what it was, a voice replied, "Sir, Fut the lad
that's to have the neckcloths." To suck an extent
were the guests liable to become helpless, and such was
tie rick of apoplexy or suffocation from their inability
to untie their cravats, that it was the appointed duty
of one of the household in this instance to perform thie
office for the protection cis their jugulars.. .

There had been a carousing party at Colonel Grant's,
the late Lord tio.dield ; and as the evening advanced
towards morning, two Highlanders were in attendance
to carry the guests upstairs, it being understood that
none isould by auy other 1116•111 arrive at their sleeping
apirtnienta. One or two of the guests, however,
whether from their abstinence or their superior strength
of head,were walking upstairs, and declined the proffered
assistsnee. The attendants were utterly astonished,
and indignantly exclaimed. " Aigh, it's sari, cheengi'd
tune, at Castle Grant, when gentlemen can gang to bed
on thrir sin feet."

Formerly, in Ssactlaail, a funeral was a feast, and
aomotunes a fortune MU well-nigh consumed in cele-
brating the great event. In the account of the funeral
expenses of Sir Hugh Campbell, of Calder or Collider,
there were charges for an enormous quantity of foal
awl drink consumed. At the funeral of Mrs. Forbes, of
Culloden, the mourners all got drunk. The festivities
woe conducted by her son Duncan, well known as the
L.,rd Proident Forbes. The company sat so long, and
drauk so freely, that when the word was ,-,:een for the
procession to form, and for the !women to m.trah to the
burial ft.,olld, t& 010 fill w e& forg,,tt u. The whd,,teoup
of jolly mourners fouml theuutolves at the gilts° wish
nothing to put in it. :4.4,0.4 atc,seneers were sent bsok
for the pour de..d lady, oho.: remains wen," then
posited in the grave with all the decorum which could
be wustenal under such anti-funeral oircumstsnees."

Nor wore such death scenes peculiar to the Ifighleods.
There ton sinJular story toll of Lard Forglen, on the
autledity of Auchinleck. Jades lloswell's !other. (In
the dhy of Lord rucgitn a death. his pliyaishin milled au
him as usuaL " [tow dues my Lord do" iLquir,d the
doctor, ac be entered the [mew. boup he'. wiaL"
answered the Ulan servant, wail a oulemody which told
what roe meant. Ito doctor was then diem' nit. a room
where two dozen of wine were laid out on a table.
Other fungous prolloutly tatilu iii. and the Mau servant,
making 'nem all sit down, began to deseribe to them his
nacter's 144 Muluuuts, and, at the some tune, to push
too hAtle about briskly. After n glass or two, the
Company ruse to depart, but they were detained by the
man. '' No, no, guntleUioll; out Co,- Lo sand; "ii was
the expre a will o the dead that Lshonlii till ye a' too.
sod I moon fulfil the oil, o' tbe dead." " And, iodeed,”
coil the doctor, who afterwards told the story, " be did
fus.ll the *id u. the dead ; for. before the end o't, there
ami cannon' no ahlo to into hi. an, tbooub."
Of the reeicleso Scutelimati, Lir. Archibald litasaini
WU a good example. Ha was an Edinburgh physician
of hian repute. a man of groat wit and plesaantry.
biter of Calvinism, a suppueel atheist, and a dreadiul
klecetianalian. lie would oemetitues be chunk twice
44:4. It was the habit of prufeanonal ewe in those
daya to meet their clients in some larern ; and it is told
of him that be ordered his servantd, whenever ne should
be detained at the tavern owe, night, to movide him
with a clean shirt text inornii.g. Theiulayed his orders
on one mow ion, any after day, till tlie number of clean
shirts suieunted to six, all of u biota Le July put oa ; but
when he insole Its way home, it trot discovered that the
whale six were upon him, one over the (Mar.