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Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest

Chapter 7 No.7

Word Count: 3096    |    Released on: 01/12/2017

Scotchman-Difference of races-Ne'er a haggis-Pugnacious people-Wha are ye, man?-T

beating, colours flying, and a long train of baggage-waggons behind. The Castle was, as I suppose it is now, a garrison fo

t myself with observing that we took up our abode in that immense building, or caserne, of modern erection, which occupies the entire eastern side of the bold rock on which the Castle stands. A gallant caserne it was-the best and roomiest that I had hithe

ld say that upon the whole they are a very decent set of people; they seem acute and intelligent, and I am told that their system of education is so excellent that every person is learned-more or less acquainted with Greek and Latin. There is one thing, however, connected with them, which is a great drawback-the horrid jargon which they speak. However learned they may be in Greek and Latin, their English is execrable; and yet I'm told it is not so bad as it was. I was in company, the other day, with an

her. 'I daresay the langua

e boys were to pick it up, might ruin their prospects in life,-were it not for that, I should very much like to send them to a school there is in this place, which everybody talks abo

s who styled thee instructress were divided. Thy learned rector and his four subordinate dominies; thy strange old porter of the tall form and grizzled hair, hight Boee, and doubtless of Norse ancestry, as his name declares; perhaps of the blood of Bui hin Digri, the hero of northern song-the Jomsborg Viking who clove Thorsteinn Midlangr asunder in the dread sea battle of Horunga Vog, and who, when the fight was lost and his own two hands smitten off, seized two chests of gold with his bloody stumps, and, springing with them into the sea, cried to the scanty relics of his crew, 'Overboard now, all Bui's lads!' Yes, I reme

y brother was; as for myself, I never got beyond the third during the two years that I remained at this seminary. I certainly acquired here a considerable insight in the Latin tongue; and, to the scandal of my father and horror of my mother, a thorough proficiency in the Scotc

ler than myself, the leader of a gang of varlets who surrounded me in the playground, on the first day, a

ht to be very thankful for not

ay my prayers, I thank God for not being an Englishman. The

deed, till I came here, I never heard a wor

ke that!' and I was presently beaten black and blue. And thus did I first

s of the class. 'The English,' said the blear-eyed lad, 'though a wee bit behind the Scotch in strength and fortitude, are nae to be sneezed at, being far ahead of the Irish, to say nothing of the French, a pack of cowardly scoundrels. And wit

oon there was at least one pugilistic encounter, and sometimes three. In one month I witnessed more of these encounters than I had ever previously seen under similar circumstances in England. After all, there was not much harm done. Harm! what harm could result from short chopping blows, a hug, and a tumble? I was witness to many a sounding whack, some blood shed, 'a blue ee' no

were in my time. Anything served them, that is, the urchins, as a pretence for a fray, or, Dorically speaking, a bicker; every street and close was at feud with its neighbour; the

heard whoops and shrill cries: eager to know the cause of this disturbance, I left the Castle, and descending the brae reached the borders of the morass, where were a runnel of water and the remains of an old wall, on the other side of which a narrow path led across the swamp: upon this path at a little distance before me there was 'a bicker.' I pushed forward, but had scarcely crossed the ruined wall and runnel, when the party nearest to me gave way, and in great confusion came running in my d

en, not being acquainted with the miry and difficult paths of the Nor Loch, and in my eagerness taking no heed of my footing, I plunged into a quagmire, into which I sank as far as my shoulders. Our adversaries no sooner perceived this disaster, than, setting up a shout, they wheeled round and attacked us most vehemently. Had my comrades

as we now returned up the brae; 'your aim is right dangerous, mon, I saw how ye

d; the party to which I had given my help on the first occasion consisted merely of outlyers,

esperate as the fights described in the Iliad, and which were certainly much more bloody than the combats of modern Greece in the war of independence: the callants not only employed their hands in hurling stones, but not unfrequently slings; at the use of which they were very expert, and which occasionally dislodged teeth, shattered jaws, or knocked out an eye. Our opponents certainly laboured under considerable disadvantage, being compelled not only to wade across a deceitfu

of the Castle, and from the black rocks on which it was founded. The bicker had long since commenced, stone

e coup de grace,-it was an awful moment. Just then I heard a shout and a rushing sound; a wild-looking figure is descending the hill with terrible bounds; it is a lad of some fifteen years; he is bare-headed, and his red uncombed hair stands on end like hedgehogs' bristles: his frame is lithy, like that of an antelope, but he has prodigious breadth of chest; he wears a military undress, that of the regiment, even of a drummer, for it is wild Davy, whom a month before I had seen enlisted on Leith Links to serve King George with drum and drumstick as long as his services might be required, and who, ere a week had elapsed, had smitten with his fist Drum-Major Elzigood, who, incensed at his inaptitude, had threatened him with his cane; he has been in confinement for weeks, this is the first day of his liberation, and he is now descending the hill with horrid bounds and shoutings; he is now about five yards dist

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1 Chapter 1 No.12 Chapter 2 No.23 Chapter 3 No.34 Chapter 4 No.45 Chapter 5 No.56 Chapter 6 No.67 Chapter 7 No.78 Chapter 8 No.89 Chapter 9 No.910 Chapter 10 No.1011 Chapter 11 No.1112 Chapter 12 No.1213 Chapter 13 No.1314 Chapter 14 No.1415 Chapter 15 No.1516 Chapter 16 No.1617 Chapter 17 No.1718 Chapter 18 No.1819 Chapter 19 No.1920 Chapter 20 No.2021 Chapter 21 No.2122 Chapter 22 No.2223 Chapter 23 No.2324 Chapter 24 No.2425 Chapter 25 No.2526 Chapter 26 No.2627 Chapter 27 No.2728 Chapter 28 No.2829 Chapter 29 No.2930 Chapter 30 No.3031 Chapter 31 No.3132 Chapter 32 No.3233 Chapter 33 No.3334 Chapter 34 No.3435 Chapter 35 No.3536 Chapter 36 No.3637 Chapter 37 No.3738 Chapter 38 No.3839 Chapter 39 No.3940 Chapter 40 No.4041 Chapter 41 No.4142 Chapter 42 No.4243 Chapter 43 No.4344 Chapter 44 No.4445 Chapter 45 No.4546 Chapter 46 No.4647 Chapter 47 No.4748 Chapter 48 No.4849 Chapter 49 No.4950 Chapter 50 No.5051 Chapter 51 No.5152 Chapter 52 No.5253 Chapter 53 No.5354 Chapter 54 No.5455 Chapter 55 No.5556 Chapter 56 No.5657 Chapter 57 No.5758 Chapter 58 No.5859 Chapter 59 No.5960 Chapter 60 No.6061 Chapter 61 No.6162 Chapter 62 No.6263 Chapter 63 No.6364 Chapter 64 No.6465 Chapter 65 No.6566 Chapter 66 No.6667 Chapter 67 No.6768 Chapter 68 No.6869 Chapter 69 No.6970 Chapter 70 No.7071 Chapter 71 No.7172 Chapter 72 No.7273 Chapter 73 No.7374 Chapter 74 No.7475 Chapter 75 No.7576 Chapter 76 No.7677 Chapter 77 No.7778 Chapter 78 No.7879 Chapter 79 No.7980 Chapter 80 No.8081 Chapter 81 No.8182 Chapter 82 No.8283 Chapter 83 No.8384 Chapter 84 No.8485 Chapter 85 No.8586 Chapter 86 No.8687 Chapter 87 No.87