“I canna recollect everything about my coats—whan I get them, or whare I get them.”
“You said you remembered perfectly well about the boats forty-two years ago, and the people that lived at Kirkcaldy then, and John More’s boat; and can you not recollect where you got that coat you have on at present?”
“I’m no gaun to say onything about coats.”
“Did Mr. Douglas, clerk to the trustees, give you that coat?”
“Hoo do you ken onything about that?”
“I ask you, did Mr. Douglas, clerk to the trustees, give you that coat?”
“I’m no bound to answer that question, but merely to tell the truth.”
“So you won’t tell where you got that coat?”
“I didna get the coat to do onything wrang for’t; I didna engage to say onything that wasna true.”
The Lord Chief Commissioner, when the witness was going out of the box, called him back and observed, “The Court wish to know from you something farther about this coat. It is not believed or suspected that you got it improperly or dishonestly, or that there is any reason for your concealing it. You may have been disinclined to speak about it, thinking that there was something of insult or reproach in the question put from the bar. You must be sensible that the bench can have no such intention: and it is for your credit, and the sake of your testimony, to disclose fairly where you got it. There may be discredit in concealing, but none in telling where you got it.