to traffic in it, and we then had it for our breakfast in the
morning at the manse, as well as in the afternoon. But what I
thought most of it for was, that it did no harm to the head of the
drinkers, which was not always the case with the possets that were
in fashion before. There is no meeting now in the summer evenings,
as I remember often happened in my younger days, with decent ladies
coming home with red faces, tosy and cosh, from a posset-masking;
so, both for its temperance and on account of Mrs Malcolm's sale, I
refrained from the November in this year to preach against tea; but
I never lifted the weight of my displeasure from off the smuggling
trade, until it was utterly put down by the strong hand of
government.

There was no other thing of note in this year, saving only that I
planted in the garden the big pear-tree, which had the two great
branches that we call the Adam and Eve. I got the plant, then a
sapling, from Mr Graft, that was Lord Eaglesham's head-gardener; and
he said it was, as indeed all the parish now knows well, a most
juicy sweet pear, such as was not known in Scotland till my lord
brought down the father plant from the king's garden in London, in
the forty-five when he went up to testify his loyalty to the House
of Hanover.



CHAPTER IV YEAR 1763



The An. Dom. 1763, was, in many a respect, a memorable year, both in