KATHARINE NAIRN
peculiar was the condition of the tongue, which was "such as
occurs from convulsions or other strong causes/'
In view of the negative testimony of these experts as to the
cause of death, the evidence regarding Eastmiln's general
health becomes important. Anne Clark and the three servants
represent him as a strong man, sound and hearty until the
last day of his life. His mother, a valuable witness on this
as upon many other points, was called by neither party—
which affords matter for reflection. Mf- Spalding, his brother-
in-law, swore that for some years past Eastmiln had been in
bad health, "complaining often of a heart-cholic or pain in
his stomach, attended with a short cough which was not con-
tinual but seldom left him." That some years before he had
suffered from an "ulcerous fever" (as was otherwise proved
to be the fact), and was never the same man again; also that
on one occasion, being seized with illness at the house of
Glenkilry, Eastmiln "got hot ale and whisky with a scrape
of nutmeg in it, and was put to bed without any supper"—a
curious remedy for gastric inflammation. Mr. Spalding
further stated that in February, the month after the marriage,
he wrote to Katharine's mother, Lady Nairn, advising "that
infeftment be taken in favor of Mrs. Ogilvy upon her marriage
contract," owing to the unsatisfactory state of her husband's
health. His brother-in-law, Andrew Stewart, deponed that
Eastmiln was "a tender man," whose sister, Martha Ogilvy
(Stewart's wife), used to say that he would not be a long liver*
He repeated what Eastmiln had told him, as already mentioned,
about "swarfing on the hill." James Millam, his friend and
- neighbour, said that four days before Eastmiln died he com-
plained to him " of a gravel and a cholic, and that he could
not live if he got not the better of it." On the Tuesday before
his death he became unwell at the deponent's house. He had
a fire lit to warm him, though the night was not cold, and got
heated chaff applied to ease his suffering. He remarked to the
witness "that he was fading as fast as dew off the grass; that
he could not get peaceable possession of his house for Anne
Clark; that he wished her'away; and he got from the de-
Sonent a ten-shilling note for the expense of her journey."
ut that faithful spinster was not so easily disposed of. Five
witnesses from Glenisla proved that the day before his death