[ 367 ] NOTES TO BOOK IV . Note A, page 300. At this place there lived lately a most respectable farmer, Wil¬ liam Graham. He emigrated about sixty years ago from Annan- dale, and by industry secured plenty and comfort on the large farm which he had occupied for fifty years. His mind was a sort of chronological register, and he was one of the best tellers of a plain story I ever knew. The most detailed, and the most interesting, except Sir Walter Scott 's, account of the " Battle of ," was related to me by " honest Willie Graham ," as he was usually called. I have just learned that my excellent acquaintance died soon after I left . Note B, page 341. Pic-nic excursions are much in vogue all over . To show how far these differ from any thing to which they may be com¬ pared in England , it may be sufficient to observe, that pic-nic par¬ ties generally consist of families of respectability, with their friends, who are on a perfectly intimate footing with each other. In summer, some romantic spot is fixed upon, to which the party proceed ; if by water, which is most commonly the case, in an open boat; or if by land, in gigs, or in calashes, and on horseback. The ladies con¬ sider it as within their particular province to furnish the eatables. The gentlemen provide wines and spirits. At these parties, there is usually less restraint, and more enjoyment, than at the assemblies. On some grassy glade, shaded by the luxuriant branches of forest trees, and not far from a clear spring or rivulet, the contents of