A STORY OF A WIG.

Western Star, Issue 2253, 4 November 1898, Page 7

A STORY OF A WIG.

When Lord Coalstown lived in a house in the Advocate's Close, Edinburgh,a strange incident bofel him. It was at that time the custom for advocates and judges to dress themselves in gowns and wigs at their own house and walk to the Parliament House.

They usually breakfasted early, and, when dressed were in the habit of leaning over their parlour window for a few minutes before St. Giles's bell started the sounding peal of a quarter to nine.enjoying the agreeable morning air, and discussing the news of the day.

It so happened one morning while Lord Coaltown was preparing to enjoy his matutinal treat, that two girls, who lived in the second flat above, were amusing themselves with a kitten, which in thoughtless sport they had swung over the window by a cord tied round its middle, and hoisted for some time up and down, till the creature was getting rather desperate with its exertions. His lordship had just popped his head out of the window, directly below where the kitten swung, little suspecting what was about to happen, when down came the exasperated animal at full career directly upon his senatorial wig. No sooner didthegirls perceive what sorb of a landing-pace their kitten had found than, in terror or surprise, they began to draw it up ; but this measure only made matters worse, for.along with the animal up also came the judge's wig, fixed firmly in its determined talons. His lordship's surprise on finding his wig lifted off his head was greatly increased when, on looking up, he saw it dangling in mid-air,without being able in any way to account for its motion. The astonishment, the dread, the awe almost of the senator below; the half mirth, half terror of the girls above, together with the fierce and retentive energy of puss between, altogether formed a scene to which language cannot do justice, but which George Cruikshank might perhaps have depicted with considerable effect.