ON SCOTTISH STORIES OF WIT AND HUMOUR


CONCLUSION

INDEX




MEMOIR OF DEAN RAMSAY.

I.

The friends of Dean Ramsay desiring a memorial of his life, his friendly
publishers, and his nearest relatives, have asked me to undertake the
work, and placed in my hands some materials giving authentic facts and
dates, and illustrating the Dean's own views on the leading events
of his life.

I feel myself excluded from dealing with one important part of such a
life, for I could not take upon me to speak with confidence or authority
upon church doctrines or church government. On the other hand, for the
_man_ I have that full sympathy which I suppose ought to exist between
the writer and the subject of the biography.

We were very old friends, natives of the same district, bred among a
people peculiar in manners and language, a people abounding in a racy
humour, differing from what prevails in most parts of Scotland--a
peculiarity which it was the joy of the Dean to bring before his