Dr. Alexander Carlyle (1722—1805) was a Scottish religious leader. Towards the end of his life, he wrote an autobiography from which this extract comes. The young Alexander Carlyle is on a tour of regional vicars who are examining him.
From him I went early in the evening to Mr Barclay’s at Moreham, a good sensible man, but with not many words or topics of conversation, for he was a great mathematician: with the help of his wife and daughter, however, we made shift to spend the evening, and retired at an early hour.
