[1] In a booklet entitled The Kilt and How to Wear It, the Hon. Stuart Erskine assures us that “in Scotland every man is a gentleman.” On the other hand, in England quite a number of Scotchmen seem to be doctors. I trust that I shall not be considered wanting in respect if I prefix the august, abdominal “Dr.” to the names of all Scotch gentlemen whom I have occasion to mention.

[2] Vide that piece of arrant Jeromeism, My Lady Nicotine.

[3] Andrew Lang, “Magic Mirrors and Crystal-gazing,” Monthly Review, February, 1902.

[4] The Free University Education Scheme of Dr. Andrew Carnegie (many times millionaire, beloved of the American steel worker, and author of a book called Triumphant Democracy, if you please) will no doubt change all this.

[5] George Lockhart, Memoirs Concerning the Affairs of Scotland from Queen Anne’s Accession to May, 1707.

[6] John Hill Burton, D.C.L., LL.D., The Scot Abroad.

[7] “English and Scotch,” The British Weekly, January 16, 1902.

[8] “English and Scotch,” The British Weekly, January 16, 1902.

[9] “The Battle of Bannockburn was won by the Scotch in 1314. Here’s tae us, wha’s like us?”—Scotch Toast.

[10] George Vivian Poore, A Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence, 1901.

[11] There are some people who think they sufficiently acquit themselves, and entertain their company, with relating facts of no consequence, but at all out of the road of such common incidents as happen every day; and this I have observed more frequently among the Scots than any other nation, who are very careful not to omit the minutest circumstances of time or place; which kind of discourse, if it were not a little relieved by the uncouth terms and phrases, as well as accent and gesture peculiar to that country, would be hardly tolerable.—Jonathan Swift, Hints towards an Essay on Conversation.

[12] Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia.

[13] Mr. Spielman has assured us that seventy-five per cent. of the jokes accepted from outsiders by Punch come from Scotland; this, however, only tends to show that Lamb and Smith knew what they were talking about, for it is everywhere admitted that if you want humour, you must make a point of avoiding Punch.

[14] “It may be surely counted not without significance among ethnical phenomena that, though France has all along shown in her language the predominance of the Latin race, three infusions of northern blood had been successively poured into the country: first, the Franks; then the Normans; and, lastly, the Scots. It seems not unreasonable that these helped to communicate to the vivacity and impetuosity of the original race those qualifications of enterprise and endurance which were needed to make up the illustrious history of France.”—The Scot Abroad.

[15] In the Embankment Gardens, London, there is a statue of Burns, on the pedestal of which appears the appended inscription:

“The Poetic Genius of my country found me at the plough and threw her inspiring mantle over me. She bade me sing the loves, the joys, the rural scenes, and rural pleasures of my native soil in my native tongue. I tuned my wild, artless notes as she inspired.”

Now any poet who can babble about his wild, artless notes is beyond praying for. I think this particular monument ought to be taken down.

[16] Albert Leffingwell, M.D., Illegitimacy: Two Studies in Demography.