Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Volume 2

according to the Scotch ideas of the peri

of more respect, or in order to preserve that proper declination of person which showed a sense that he was in the presence of his patron, he sat upon the edge of his chair, placed at three feet distance from the table, and

eemly projection of the person towards those who happened to walk behind; but those being at all times his inferiors (for Mr. Macwheeble was very scrupulous in giving place to all others), he cared very little wha

eresting old man, with much the air of a suff

ed, their ben

deed it must be owned, that he himself, though at heart a keen partisan of the exiled family, had kept pretty fair with all the different turns of state in

gh Waverley, with some difficulty, obtained the privilege of sometimes neglecting the glass. At length, as the evening grew more late, the Baron made a private signal to Mr. Saunders Saunderson, or, as he facetiously denominated him, ALEXANDER AB ALEXANDRO, who left the room with a nod, and soon after returned, his grave countenance mantling with a solemn and mysterious smile, and placed before his master a small oaken casket, mounted with brass ornaments of curious form. The Baron, drawing out a priv

s animal IN ACTU FEROCIORI, or in a voracious, lacerating, and devouring posture. Now, sir, we hold this most honourable achievement by the wappen-brief, or concession of arms, of Frederick Redbeard, Emperor of Germany, to my predecessor, Go

os, Danaumque

te

ear of Bradwardine (though old Dr. Doubleit used jocosely to call it Ursa Major), and was supposed, in old and Catholic times, to be invested with certain properties of a mystical and supernatural quality. And though I give not in to such ANILIA, it is certain it has always been esteemed a

nearly an English pint; and, at the conclusion, delivering the bottle to the butler, to be held carefully

strength of his constitution, he did justice to the company in the contents of the Blessed Bear, and felt less inconvenience from the draught than he could possibly have expected. The others, whose time had been more actively employed, began to show symptoms of innovation,-'the good wine did its good office.' [Southey's MADOC.] The frost of etiquette, and pride of birth, began to give way before the genial blessings of this benign constellation, and the fo

nd to enjoy, after this feverish revel, the cool summer evening, attended the party. But when they arrived at Luckie Macleary's, the Lairds of Balmawhapple and Killancureit declared their determination to acknowledge

change-house, leading Edward in unresisting submission; for his landlord whispered him, that to demur to such an overture would be construed into a high misdemeanour against the LEGES CONVIVIALES, or regulations of genial compotation. Widow Macleary seemed to have expected this visit, as well she might, for it was the usual consummation of merry bouts, not only at Tully-Veolan, but at most other gentlemen's houses in S

stools of huge and clumsy form, upon the sites which best suited the inequalities of her clay floor; and having, moreover, put on her clean toy, rokelay, and scarlet plaid, gravely awaited the arrival of the company, in full hope of custom and profit. When they were seated under the sooty rafters of Luckie Macleary's only apartment, thic

; Killancureit talked, in a steady unalterable dull key, of top-dressing and bottom-dressing, [This has been censured as an anachronism; and it must be confessed that agriculture of this kind was unknown to the Scotch Sixty Years since.] and year-olds, and gimmers, and dinmonts, and stots, and runts, and kyloes, and a proposed turnpike-act; while Balmawhapple, in notes exalted above both, extolled his horse, his hawks, and a greyh

volage,

pour vou

un homme

arbe au

on, La

s chapea

a roug

e de la

du v

on, La

called a d-d good song, composed by Gibby Gaethroughwi't, t

nbarchan's

e bent of K

a weary c

the muirf

s composed by Andrew MacDonald, the inge

ow dropped the competition, but continued to hum, Lon, Lon, Laridon, and to regard the successful

black-cock s

down wi' a sl

m on to my l

ldom wou

ated the young laird from the habitual reverence in which he held Bradwardine at other times. He pronounced the claret SHILPIT, and demanded brandy with great vociferation. It was brought; and now the Demon of Politics envied even the harmony arising from this Dutch concert, merely because there was not a wrathful note in the strange compound of sounds which it produced. Inspir

ved. But, ere he could interfere, the Baron of Bradwardine had taken up the quarrel. 'Sir,' he said, 'whatever my sentiments, TANQUAM PRIVATUS, may be in such matters, I shall not tamely endure your saying anything that may impinge upon the honourable feelings of a gentleman under my roof. Sir, if you have no respect for the laws of urbanity, d

awhapple. 'I ken weel that you mean the Solemn League a

native country before a stranger and an Englishman;' and Waverley, at the same moment, entreating Mr. Bradwardine to permit him to reply to

urself; but in my domain, in this poor Barony of Bradwardine, and under this roof, which is QUASI mine, being held by tacit relocation by a tenant at will, I am IN LOC

ge disdain, 'that I'll make a moor-cock of the man that refuses my toast, whether it be a crop-eared English W

g, stout, and active; but the Baron, infinitely more master of his weapon, would, like Sir Toby Belch,

tranger to her dwelling, aroused Luckie Macleary as she sat quietly beyond the hallan, or earthen partition of the cottage, with eyes employed on Boston's CROOK OF THE LOT, while her ideas were engaged in summing up the reckoning. She boldly rushed in, with the shrill expostulation, 'Wad their honours slay ane another there, and bring discredit on an honest widow-woman's house, when there was a' the lee-land in the country to fight upon?' a remonstrance which she seconded by flinging her plaid with great dexterity over the weapons of the combatants. The servants by this time rushed in, and being, by great chance, tolerably sober, se