Note 21 — MY FATHER’S MEMOIR. A LETTER TO JOHN CAIRNS, D. D.

One day my mother, and her only sister, Agnes—married to James Aitken of Cullands, a man before his class and his time, for long the only Whig and Seceder laird in Peeblesshire, and with whom my father shared the Edinburgh Review from its beginning—the two sisters who were, the one to the other, as Martha was to Mary, sat talking of their household doings; my aunt was great upon some things she could do; my father looked up from his book, and said, “There is one thing, Mrs. Aitken, you cannot do—you cannot turn the heel of a stocking;” and he was right, he had noticed her make over this “kittle” turn to her mother. Return