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HAWKIE, on one of the Glasgow
half-yearly sacramental fasts (now numbered with the things that were,
took his beat on the Dumbarton Road, between Glasgow and Par-tick. As the
day happened to be fine, not commonly the case on these misnamed days, the
"collector of poor rates," as he called himself, justly calculated that
this beautiful approach to Glasgow from the west, in these later days more
beautiful than ever, would be well frequented.
To these numerous passers-by, the
ever-fertile Hawkie made proclamation as follows
:— "I am
sent out here this afternoon by the clergy in Glasgow
to put a tax on a’ you gentry that ha’e mista’en the kintra for the kirk."
There can be little doubt that this
ingenious method of raising the wind would land a good cargo of coppers in
Hawkie’s pocket. The ultimate recipients, however, would not be the
dispensers of spiritual, but rather the vendors of spirituous,
consolation. |
