Auld Perth

PERTH SOCIETY 19
Thomson and Dr. Halket, as well as little Dr. Scott,
were all in full medical and surgical practice. The
first two were enthusiastic golfers, and, when wanted,
could always be found on the North Inch. James
Condie embraced a large share of legal and factorial
business, and, with his large family of sons and
daughters, was very prominent in those days, living
in Blackfriars House in Perth, and at Rohallion,
near Birnam. With Mr. Peddie as his man Friday,
he was a good sportsman as regards shooting,
billiards, and especially golf, in which the fame of
himself and his son George Condie was not con-
fined to the North Inch, but was as great at St.
Andrews.
In 1848, when I came to Perth, it was at the
commencement of a new order of things, as the line
between Stirling and Perth (then known as the
Scottish Central), as well as that from Perth to
Aberdeen (then called the Scottish North-Eastern),
had then been recently opened. for traffic. The
Dundee and Perth Railway was inaugurated with a
grand luncheon party at Barnhill, under the auspices
of Lord Kinnaird, shortly afterwards. All these lines
became incorporated with the Caledonian. The
immediate consequence of these railroads was that
all the mails and stage coaches were knocked off
the various roads, and Peter Rough and all the
coaching celebrities lost their livelihood, and were
absorbed in some other employment, except the
mail to Inverness. I came from Inverness on the top
in a very cold night in April 1853, and she continued
to run for some years after that. The North British
was not completed to Perth at that time, and coaches