same which I settled last year on my dochter, Marion, when she was
married to Mr Geery, of the Gatherton Holme.



CHAPTER XXII--THE WIG DINNER



The affair of the pressgang gave great concern to all of the
council; for it was thought that the loyalty of the burgh would be
called in question, and doubted by the king's ministers,
notwithstanding our many assurances to the contrary; the which sense
and apprehension begat among us an inordinate anxiety to manifest
our principles on all expedient occasions. In the doing of this,
divers curious and comical things came to pass; but the most comical
of all was what happened at the Michaelmas dinner following the
riot.

The weather, for some days before, had been raw for that time of the
year, and Michaelmas-day was, both for wind and wet and cold, past
ordinar; in so much that we were obligated to have a large fire in
the council-chamber, where we dined. Round this fire, after
drinking his majesty's health and the other appropriate toasts, we
were sitting as cozy as could be; and every one the longer he sat,
and the oftener his glass visited the punch-bowl, waxed more and
more royal, till everybody was in a most hilarious temperament,
singing songs and joining chorus with the greatest cordiality.

It happened, among others of the company, there was a gash old carl,