From what cause, however, such ideas were rendered
as vivid as actual impressions, we have no information to be depended
upon. This vision was certainly attended with one of the most important
of consequences connected with the Christian dispensation--the
conversion of a sinner; and hence no single narrative has, perhaps, done
more to confirm the superstitious opinion that apparitions of this
awful kind cannot arise without a divine fiat.' Dr. Hibbert adds, in a
note--'A short time before the vision, Colonel Gardiner had received a
severe fall from his horse. Did the brain receive some slight degree
of injury from the accident, so as to predispose him to this spiritual
illusion?'--HIBBERT'S PHILOSOPHY OF APPARITIONS, Edinburgh, 1824, p.
190.
NOTE 5.--SCOTTISH INNS
The courtesy of an invitation to partake a traveller's meal, or at least
that of being invited to share whatever liquor the guest called for, was
expected by certain old landlords in Scotland, even in the youth of the
author. In requital, mine host was always furnished with the news of the
country, and was probably a little of a humorist to boot. The devolution
of the whole actual business and drudgery of the inn upon the poor
gudewife, was very common among the Scottish Bonifaces.
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