P R E F A C E In the following page s the endeavour has been to fasten the o f f f picture, as the photographers say, the old amiliar aces that — have come and gone to most o f us alas that it should be so o f . like the shadows yesterday Much, very much, is the echo o f the loving voices hushed fo r ever in the silent land ; but so far as it was possible the facts have been carefully verified by the Burgh and other M S . Records, so as to make themno f o f mere ancy sketches, but a mirror, however dim, the past . G . G . N S R TH E R Isl (muar A T U , / y, CO N T E N T S . f Matthew Forster Conolly or, A Busy Li e, w o f Joseph Bo man or, The H orrors an Arctic Winter, i of d John Ramsay or, The Eccentric M ser Cellar yke, r of The Sto y the Anstruther Sailor, Andrew Waid, h f o . The Fis er Poet St Monans, David Barclay, the Gravedigger, of —A The Rich Beggar Crail True Story, f e Colin Fowler ; or, Li e in Pittenwe m a Hundred Years Ago, S ir Harry Erskine, of Robert Wilson or, Anecdotes the Anstruther Pulpit, M . P . Captain Stewart, or, How the Seat was Lost and Won by the Porteous Mob, — Electioneering in the Old Time The Union, H e u hes f Sir Walter W . g ; or, Beginning at the Foot o a the L dder, John Scott, o f The Adventure School Seventy Years Ago, The Pressgang, o f o f f The Seizure the Danish Fleet, and the Fishers Fi e, o f S co tstarvit The First Contest or, Scott , Firthfield u T ale of 1 80 The Tragedy A Tr e Years Ago, ' lur' d e ghour's FOLK LURE OF THE EAST OF FIFE. flDattb ew jforster Co n o lly A B U S Y I F E L . E W faces look so kindly through the mist as that of the old Town Clerk o f f u Anstruther. His ather, a b stling son o f r the Emerald Isle, was the oversee at Pittenweem Salt Pans till the lucky accident that made himlandlord o f the f o f Gol Inn at Crail . He was a man i infinite humour, as you see by his s gn board Come allye good people and give me a lift r Fo r this positively is my ve y last shift. Our Clerk inherited th e quiet laugh as well as the literary o f — f f h s o i . tastes his mother another the amily, cousin, M ” J o f Fowler, being the author of the Spirit the Isles . She was r r allied to the oldest names in C ail, where he was bo n in the B 2 f o f 1 th e event ul summer 789 . There the Bailies anticipated Compulsory Clauses o f the Scottish Education Act so lon g ago 1 2 8 as 7 , when it was ruled that all boys shall attend the ” “ ” o f Grammar School at the age six, but Wee Mat, as he was f fi o f called, was only our when he got his rst lesson at the knee M cmin the clever but eccentric James a , who loved Latin so well that he began the lesson at six in the morning in his shirt o f d sleeves, and whom his pupil use to tell this piquant story w as of The old Rector being dead, it thought a master stroke Municipal wisdom to remit the appointment to the Professors f r ’ . o i at St Andrews . They accordingly met trial n Bailie Glass s f o f 2 0 th 1 parlour on the a ternoon the January, 779 , when two so excelled that the‘ Committee could not see on which to bestow f the palm . At last Pro essor Hunter solved the riddle . He o who could teach well ught to eat well, and, Bailie, you will ” - f decide to morrow at break ast . The idea so delighted Principal Hill that it was given effect M acmin to, with the result that consumed three times as much v buttered toast as his nervous ri al, and so got the situation, f fo r f which he held, with all his rolics, the next orty years, or to If th e f 1 8 1 . h day o his death, in 9 ever an adept, as t ey said he was, with his Euclid and Horace, he was by no means an b - - f elegant penman, so that his pupil was y and bye trans erred to r Kilrenny School, where the art was said to be taught to pe fec tion by Dominie O rph at . But let us stop fo r a little to glance at the school so famous in his day. An old tenement so ruinous that Weaver Black was once and again warned to make it wind and w f f was atertight, or or eit his bond, rented by the Session as o f 1 6 1 a school and schoolhouse till the spring 7 , when the ’ f r o 8 65. 8d heritors bought the smith s barnyard £ . , and signed a contract with the village mason, Andrew Ramsay, to build a 6 f 1 —h e two storey house, 3 eet by 9 % over the walls to loft and — in i tile the same short, to prov de all the material save th e f o . u , £49 stones at the q arry at the cost Not the ground floor, th e but only the ben end to right was the schoolroom, and, do you wonder that when the herds came in from the muirs it was 3 so crowded that the weaklings had to squat all day long on the earthen floor. Yet so it continued till the existing school was 1 1 O ne r o f built in 8 5. memo y that old classroom was especially d f of f ear to him . The inn at Crail was the usual how the ussy i o f Inne r ellie L umsda ne . little laird g , James H e it was that inspired the remonstrance signed by seventy heads o f families ” a . O gainst the minister, Mr Beat, pening the back yett so as to allow his horse and cows to graze in the burial yard . There r r h was no vest y, so the heritors discussed the pape in the churc , o n 2 2 nd o f 1 . the May, 773 “ I myself saw both the mare and the kine in the kirkyard, I if ass said the laird . But am to blame the strays into the ” f c ? r r . hurch reto ted the fie y presbyter But, let his oibles be as o f they may, his Lady, Christian Anstruther, was one those sweet natures who make all hearts rejoice . Happening to see the little scholar munching his crust at the side o f the wall o ne cold day, she prevailed on the Laird to invite him to d h e f . inner, which continued to enjoy ever a ter at the table “ ” Yes, he would say, with a flush on his pale cheek, no picture ever so impressed itself on my fancy as the majestic o f t figure that good lady walking amongst the flowers, not wi h f o f u her macaws only, but with the redbreasts lying out the b shes f h ” at a call to pick the crumbs rom her and . In that modest f schoolroomhe became, in act, such a proficient with his pen that—as the sequel to the consultation in the little parlour with fi the Episcopal minister, rst at Crail and then at St . Andrews, o f f f h e . o t Rev Mr Robb, the author a now orgotten volume — verse his father resolved to devote him to the desk . Accord n l fif th e ffi o f i g y, in his teenth year, he entered o ce Notary f em. o o f a m P , Grah , at ittenwe To the eye the student character there never was so wide a contrast as between the two . Look at the story of the old Clerk . John Graham had served as a f purser in the Navy till, quarrelling with the Commodore, he le t the sea to begin again at Kirkcaldy . His inordinate love o f speculation led him to build a v illa in such an out - of- the - way ’ ” comer that it was long known as Graham s Folly. On being i emveem f appointed Town Clerk at P tt , he was as in atuated as ’ “ w f f fo r 1 0 0 0 u h u , £ . ever, and so p rloined is i e s ort ne a check I 4 to never saw it, he solemnly said, with his hand on his heart, f w his injured amily. How could I , hen I shut my eyes as my ” fi th e a ngers undid l tchet, he laughed to a gossip, in the hearing f o f o . his apprentice The embarrassments such a one, need we f say, only ended with his li e . — h ” e . He couldna dee was haunted, said the nurse How else could it be with his penniless wife and children standing by his bedside ? ’ A specimen o f the young clerk s penmanship was only needed to secure a situation in Edinburgh, so as to enable him to attend the law classes , when the incident occurred which shaped his f .