"Mr. Gillespie remained through life a bachelor. His establishment at Spylaw was of the simplest description. It is said that he invariably sat at the same table with his servants, indulging in familiar conversation, and entering with much spirit into their amusements. Newspapers were not so widely circulated at that period as they are now, and on the return of any of his domestics from the city, which one of them daily visited, he listened with great attention to the 'news, and enjoyed with much zest the narration of any jocular incident that had occurred. Mr. Gillespie had a penchant for animals, and their wants were carefully attended to. His poultry, equally with his horses, could have testified to the judicious attention which he bestowed upon them. A story is told of the familiarity between the laird and his riding horse, which was well-fed and full of spirit.
"The animal frequently indulged in a little restive curvetting with its master, especially when the latter was about to get into the saddle. 'Come, come,' he would say, on such occasions, addressing the animal in his usual quiet way, 'hae dune, noo, for ye'll no like if I come across your lugs (ears) wi' the stick.'
"Even in his old age Mr. Gillespie regularly superintended the operations in the mill, which was situated in the rear of his house. On these occasions he was wrapped in an old blanket ingrained with snuff. Though he kept a carriage he very seldom used it, until shortly before his death, when increasing infirmities caused him occasionally to take a drive. It was of this carriage, plain and neat in its design, with nothing on its panel but the initials 'J. G.' that the witty Henry Erskine proposed the couplet—
'Who would have thought it
That noses had bought it?'
as an appropriate motto. In those days snuff was much more extensively used than at present, and Mr. Gillespie was in the habit of gratuitously filling the 'mulls' of many of the Edinburgh characters of the last century. Colinton appears to have been a great snuff-making centre. About thirty years ago there were five snuff mills in operation in the parish, the produce of which was sold in Edinburgh. Even now a considerable quantity of snuff is made in the district, chiefly by grinders to the trade."
Murray, alluding to the popularity of the custom in England during the reign of the House of Brunswick, says:—
Fops Taking Snuff.(From an old print).
"The reigns of the four Georges may be entitled the snuffing period of English history. The practice became an appanage of fashion before 1714, as it has continued after 1830, to be the comfort of priests, literary men, highlanders, tailors, factory hands, and old people of both sexes. George IV. was a nasute judge of snuffs, and so enamoured of the delectation, that in each of his palaces he kept a jar chamber, containing a choice assortment of tobacco powder, presided over by a critical superintendent. His favorite stimulant in the morning was violet Strasburgh, the same which had previously helped Queen Charlotte to 'kill the day'—after dinner Carrotte—named from his penchant for it. King's Carrotte, Martinique, Etrenne, Old Paris, Bureau, Cologne, Bordeaux, Havre, Princeza, Rouen, and Rappee, were placed on the table, in as many rich and curious boxes."