Boatie himself was Abernethy, the ferryman of Dee below Blackhall; he hauled his boat across the river by a rope made fast at both ends.

Once, in a heavy water, the rope gave way, and Boatie in his little craft was whirled down the raging river and got ashore with much difficulty.

It was after this, when boasting of his valiant exertions, that Mrs.Russell put him in mind of the gratitude he owed to Providence for his escape, and was answered as the Dean himself tells us in his _Reminiscences_.

Another of the water-side worthies, "Saunders Paul," was nominally the keeper of the public-house at Invercannie, where the water of Cannie falls into Dee.

It was the alehouse of the country, but frequented much more by the gentry than by the commons.