nine in the evening
Rather dull they must have been , those old Scotch balls , where Goldsmith saw the ladies and gentlemen in two dismal groups divided by the length of the room . ` The Assembly Close received the fair -- Order and elegance presided there -- Each gay Right Honourable had her place , To walk a minuet with becoming grace . No racing to the dance with rival hurry , Such was thy sway , O famed Miss Nicky Murray ! ' It was half-past nine in the evening when Salemina and I drove to Holyrood , our humble cab-horse jogging faithfully behind Lady Baird 's brougham , and it was the new experience of seeing Auld Reekie by lamplight that called up these gay visions of other days , -- visions and days so thoroughly our mental property that we could not help resenting the fact that women were hanging washing from the Countess of Eglinton 's former windows , and popping their unkempt heads out of the Duchess of Gordon 's old doorway . The Reverend Ronald is so kind ! He enters so fully into our spirit of inquiry , and takes such pleasure in our enthusiasms ! He even sprang lightly out of Lady Baird 's carriage and called to our ` lamiter ' to halt while he showed us the site of the Black Turnpike , from whose windows Queen Mary saw the last of her kingdom 's capital .