A rather funny story about visiting lodges in Scotland last year. The first night, my Scottish friend wasn't available, so he arranged with someone else to take me to a lodge. Upon arrival, my host introduced me to the Master of the lodge. He asked "can you vouch for him?" to which he replied, "no, I just met him this evening. Martyn Greene (my friend whom some of you may know from Facebook) told me he's sat in lodge with him." The master replied "oh, well, if Martyn says he's good, that's good enough for me!" So, I was vouched for second-hand by someone who wasn't there.
I was actually kind of looking forward to being examined, to see how they did it in Scotland. Martyn was with me for every other lodge visit on the trip, so it never came up again.