Note 157 — BOOK XX.

Sir George Mackenzie got £1500 of Sir William Scott of Harden’s fine; the Duke of Gordon and the Marquis of Atholl shared the fine of Harden, junior—three thousand five hundred pounds between them! Some degree of honour, as the times went, might perhaps then attach to the open driving of their neighbours’ cattle, not infrequent on the Highland borders, as it was accompanied with danger and required at least brute-courage; but these legal thefts, like the pilfering of the pick-pocket or the petty-fogging lawyer—his twin-brother in our day—excite unmingled disgust, because the thieves know they can do it safely.