BACK BITE

June 1, 1818

n THE Herald reported: ''On Wednesday last, a fine boy about 12 years of age fell from a window in the Kirkton, Greenock, three storeys high. He was taken up to the infirmary in a state of insensibility, where he lingered till Thursday afternoon, when he died. The practice of employing boys and servants to clean windows outside cannot be too severely reprobated, but in justice to the family who employed him, he was warned of his danger, and was not engaged until he had assured them that he had been accustomed to that sort of work.''

n THE Herald also reported: ''Officers of excise at Troon seized, near Irvine, a still at work of about 45 gallons content, and destroyed upwards of 400 gallons of mash, some malt, a few gallons of low wines, and about 30 gallons of yeast, with all the utensils. There were seven men and three women attending the still, who made some considerable resistance, but from the determined conduct of the officers they judged it prudent to desist.''

n READERS were warned: ''We are informed that two young women are going about the town and country soliciting charity, under the pretence that they are the widows of the two men killed by the fall of a scaffold in Glasgow about six months ago. These women are imposters, the unfortunate men having been bachelors.''

n ADS included a pitch for ''Dr Fothergill's Nervous Drops'' - which claimed to cure ''lowness of spirits, headaches, spasms, tremors, hypochondrianism, extreme latitude, anxiety, and fainting fits''.