Chapter 27

To sum the whole--the close of all.

DEAN SWIFT.

As Glossin died without heirs, and without payment of the price, the estate of Ellangowan was again thrown upon the hands of Mr. Godfrey Bertram's creditors, the right of most of whom was, however, defeasible in case Henry Bertram should establish his character of heir of entail. This young gentleman put his affairs into the hands of Mr. Pleydell and Mr. Mac-Morlan, with one single proviso, that, though he himself should be obliged again to go to India, every debt justly and honourably due by his father should be made good to the claimant. Mannering, who heard this declaration, grasped him kindly by the hand, and from that moment might be dated a thorough understanding between them.

The hoards of Miss Margaret Bertram, and the liberal assistance of the Colonel, easily enabled the heir to make provision for payment of the just creditors of his father, while the ingenuity and research of his law friends detected, especially in the accounts of Glossin, so many overcharges as greatly diminished the total amount. In these circumstances the creditors did not hesitate to recognise Bertram's right, and to surrender to him the house and property of his ancestors. All the party repaired from Woodbourne to take possession, amid the shouts of the tenantry and the neighbourhood; and so eager was Colonel Mannering to superintend certain improvements which he had recommended to Bertram, that he removed with his family from Woodbourne to Ellangowan, although at present containing much less and much inferior accommodation.

The poor Dominie's brain was almost turned with joy on returning to his old habitation. He posted upstairs, taking three steps at once, to a little shabby attic, his cell and dormitory in former days, and which the possession of his much superior apartment at Woodbourne had never banished from his memory. Here one sad thought suddenly struck the honest man--the books! no three rooms in Ellangowan were capable to contain them. While this qualifying reflection was passing through his mind, he was suddenly summoned by Mannering to assist in calculating some proportions relating to a large and splendid house which was to be built on the site of the New Place of Ellangowan, in a style corresponding to the magnificence of the ruins in its vicinity. Among the various rooms in the plan, the Dominie observed that one of the largest was entitled THE LIBRARY; and close beside was a snug, well-proportioned chamber, entitled Mr. SAMPSON'S APARTMENT. 'Prodigious, prodigious, pro-di-gi-ous!' shouted the enraptured Dominie.

Mr. Pleydell had left the party for some time; but he returned, according to promise, during the Christmas recess of the courts. He drove up to Ellangowan when all the family were abroad but the Colonel, who was busy with plans of buildings and pleasure-grounds, in which he was well skilled, and took great delight.

'Ah ha!' said the Counsellor, 'so here you are! Where are the ladies? where is the fair Julia?'

'Walking out with young Hazlewood, Bertram, and Captain Delaserre, a friend of his, who is with us just now. They are gone to plan out a cottage at Derncleugh. Well, have you carried through your law business?'

'With a wet finger,' answered the lawyer; 'got our youngster's special service retoured into Chancery. We had him served heir before the macers.'

'Macers? who are they?'

'Why, it is a kind of judicial Saturnalia. You must know, that one of the requisites to be a macer, or officer in attendance upon our supreme court, is, that they shall be men of no knowledge.'

'Very well!'

'Now, our Scottish legislature, for the joke's sake I suppose, have constituted those men of no knowledge into a peculiar court for trying questions of relationship and descent, such as this business of Bertram, which often involve the most nice and complicated questions of evidence.'

'The devil they have! I should think that rather inconvenient,' said Mannering.

'O, we have a practical remedy for the theoretical absurdity. One or two of the judges act upon such occasions as prompters and assessors to their own doorkeepers. But you know what Cujacius says, "Multa sunt in moribus dissentanea, multa sine ratione." [Footnote: The singular inconsistency hinted at is now, in a great degree, removed.] However, this Saturnalian court has done our business; and a glorious batch of claret we had afterwards at Walker's. Mac-Morlan will stare when he sees the bill.'

'Never fear,' said the Colonel, 'we'll face the shock, and entertain the county at my friend Mrs. Mac-Candlish's to boot.'

'And choose Jock Jabos for your master of horse?' replied the lawyer.

'Perhaps I may.'

'And where is Dandie, the redoubted Lord of Liddesdale?' demanded the advocate.

'Returned to his mountains; but he has promised Julia to make a descent in summer, with the goodwife, as he calls her, and I don't know how many children.'

'O, the curly-headed varlets! I must come to play at Blind Harry and Hy Spy with them. But what is all this?' added Pleydell, taking up the plans. 'Tower in the centre to be an imitation of the Eagle Tower at Caernarvon--corps de logis--the devil! Wings--wings! Why, the house will take the estate of Ellangowan on its back and fly away with it!'

'Why, then, we must ballast it with a few bags of sicca rupees,' replied the Colonel.

'Aha! sits the wind there? Then I suppose the young dog carries off my mistress Julia?'

'Even so, Counsellor.'

'These rascals, the post-nati, get the better of us of the old school at every turn,' said Mr. Pleydell. 'But she must convey and make over her interest in me to Lucy.'

'To tell you the truth, I am afraid your flank will be turned there too,' replied the Colonel.

'Indeed?'

'Here has been Sir Robert Hazlewood,' said Mannering, 'upon a visit to Bertram, thinking and deeming and opining--'

'O Lord! pray spare me the worthy Baronet's triads!'

'Well, sir,' continued Mannering, 'to make short, he conceived that, as the property of Singleside lay like a wedge between two farms of his, and was four or five miles separated from Ellangowan, something like a sale or exchange or arrangement might take place, to the mutual convenience of both parties.'

'Well, and Bertram--'

'Why, Bertram replied, that he considered the original settlement of Mrs. Margaret Bertram as the arrangement most proper in the circumstances of the family, and that therefore the estate of Singleside was the property of his sister.'

'The rascal!' said Pleydell, wiping his spectacles. 'He'll steal my heart as well as my mistress. Et puis?'

'And then Sir Robert retired, after many gracious speeches; but last week he again took the field in force, with his coach and six horses, his laced scarlet waistcoat, and best bob-wig--all very grand, as the good-boy books say.'

'Ay! and what was his overture?'

'Why, he talked with great form of an attachment on the part of Charles Hazlewood to Miss Bertram.'

'Ay, ay; he respected the little god Cupid when he saw him perched on the Dun of Singleside. And is poor Lucy to keep house with that old fool and his wife, who is just the knight himself in petticoats?'

'No; we parried that. Singleside House is to be repaired for the young people, and to be called hereafter Mount Hazlewood.'

'And do you yourself, Colonel, propose to continue at Woodbourne?'

'Only till we carry these plans into effect. See, here's the plan of my bungalow, with all convenience for being separate and sulky when I please.'

'And, being situated, as I see, next door to the old castle, you may repair Donagild's tower for the nocturnal contemplation of the celestial bodies? Bravo, Colonel!'

'No, no, my dear Counsellor! Here ends THE ASTROLOGER.'

THE END

NOTES AND GLOSSARY

NOTES

NOTE 1, p. 93

The roads of Liddesdale, in Dandie Dinmont's days, could not be said to exist, and the district was only accessible through a succession of tremendous morasses. About thirty years ago the author himself was the first person who ever drove a little open carriage into these wilds, the excellent roads by which they are now traversed being then in some progress. The people stared with no small wonder at a sight which many of them had never witnessed in their lives before.

NOTE 2, p. 102

The Tappit Hen contained three quarts of claret--

Weel she loed a Hawick gill, And leugh to see a tappit hen.

I have seen one of these formidable stoups at Provost Haswell's, at Jedburgh, in the days of yore It was a pewter measure, the claret being in ancient days served from the tap, and had the figure of a hen upon the lid. In later times the name was given to a glass bottle of the same dimensions. These are rare apparitions among the degenerate topers of modern days.

NOTE 3, p. 102

The account given by Mr. Pleydell of his sitting down in the midst of a revel to draw an appeal case was taken from a story told me by an aged gentleman of the elder President Dundas of Amiston (father of the younger President and of Lord Melville). It had been thought very desirable, while that distinguished lawyer was king's counsel, that his assistance should be obtained in drawing an appeal case, which, as occasion for such writings then rarely occurred, was held to be matter of great nicety. The solicitor employed for the appellant, attended by my informant acting as his clerk, went to the Lord Advocate's chambers in the Fishmarket Close, as I think. It was Saturday at noon, the Court was just dismissed, the Lord Advocate had changed his dress and booted himself, and his servant and horses were at the foot of the close to carry him to Arniston. It was scarcely possible to get him to listen to a word respecting business. The wily agent, however, on pretence of asking one or two questions, which would not detain him half an hour, drew his Lordship, who was no less an eminent ban vivant than a lawyer of unequalled talent, to take a whet at a celebrated tavern, when the learned counsel became gradually involved in a spirited discussion of the law points of the case. At length it occurred to him that he might as well ride to Arniston in the cool of the evening. The horses were directed to be put in the stable, but not to be unsaddled. Dinner was ordered, the law was laid aside for a time, and the bottle circulated very freely. At nine o'clock at night, after he had been honouring Bacchus for so many hours, the Lord Advocate ordered his horses to be unsaddled; paper, pen, and ink were brought; he began to dictate the appeal case, and continued at his task till four o'clock the next morning. By next day's post the solicitor sent the case to London, a chef-d'oeuvre of its kind; and in which, my informant assured me, it was not necessary on revisal to correct five words. I am not, therefore, conscious of having overstepped accuracy in describing the manner in which Scottish lawyers of the old time occasionally united the worship of Bacchus with that of Themis. My informant was Alexander Keith, Esq., grandfather to my friend, the present Sir Alexander Keith of Ravelstone, and apprentice at the time to the writer who conducted the cause.

NOTE 4, p. 180

We must again have recourse to the contribution to Blackwood's Magazine, April 1817:--

'To the admirers of good eating, gipsy cookery seems to have little to recommend it. I can assure you, however, that the cook of a nobleman of high distinction, a person who never reads even a novel without an eye to the enlargement of the culinary science, has added to the "Almanach des Gourmands" a certain Potage a la Meg Merrilies de Derndeugh, consisting of game and poultry of all kinds, stewed with vegetables into a soup, which rivals in savour and richness the gallant messes of Camacho's wedding; and which the Baron of Bradwardine would certainly have reckoned among the epulae lautiores.'

The artist alluded to in this passage is Mons. Florence, cook to Henry and Charles, late Dukes of Buccleuch, and of high distinction in his profession.

NOTE 5, p. 212

The Burnet whose taste for the evening meal of the ancients is quoted by Mr. Pleydellwas the celebrated metaphysician and excellent man, Lord Monboddo, whose coenae will not be soon forgotten by those who have shared his classic hospitality. As a Scottish judge he took the designation of his family estate. His philosophy, as is well known, was of a fanciful and somewhat fantastic character; but his learning was deep, and he was possessed of a singular power of eloquence, which reminded the hearer of the os rotundum of the Grove or Academe. Enthusiastically partial to classical habits, his entertainments were always given in the evening, when there was a circulation of excellent Bourdeaux, in flasks garlanded with roses, which were also strewed on the table after the manner of Horace. The best society, whether in respect of rank or literary distinction, was always to be found in St. John's Street, Canongate. The conversation of the excellent old man, his high, gentleman-like, chivalrous spirit, the learning and wit with which he defended his fanciful paradoxes, the kind and liberal spirit of his hospitality, must render these noctes coenaeque dear to all who, like the author (though then young), had the honour of sitting at his board.

NOTE 6, p. 215

It is probably true, as observed by Counsellor Pleydell, that a lawyer's anxiety about his case, supposing him to have been some time in practice, will seldom disturb his rest or digestion. Clients will, however, sometimes fondly entertain a different opinion. I was told by an excellent judge, now no more, of a country gentleman who, addressing his leading counsel, my informer, then an advocate in great practice, on the morning of the day on which the case was to be pleaded, said, with singular bonhomie, 'Weel, my Lord (the counsel was Lord Advocate), the awful day is come at last. I have nae been able to sleep a wink for thinking of it; nor, I daresay, your Lordship either.'

NOTE 7, p. 235

Whistling, among the tenantry of a large estate, is when an individual gives such information to the proprietor or his managers as to occasion the rent of his neighbour's farms being raised, which, for obvious reasons, is held a very unpopular practice.

NOTE 8, p. 286

This hard word is placed in the mouth of one of the aged tenants. In the old feudal tenures the herezeld constituted the best horse or other animal on the vassals' lands, become the right of the superior. The only remnant of this custom is what is called the sasine, or a fee of certain estimated value, paid to the sheriff of the county, who gives possession to the vassals of the crown.

NOTE 9, p. 301

This mode of securing prisoners was universally practised in Scotland after condemnation. When a man received sentence of death he was put upon THE GAD, as it was called, that is, secured to the bar of iron in the manner mentioned in the text. The practice subsisted in Edinburgh till the old jail was taken down some years since, and perhaps may be still in use.

GLOSSARY

'A, he, I. a', all. abide, endure. ablins, aiblins, perhaps. abune, above. ae, one. aff, off. afore, before. a-guisarding, masquerading. ahint, behind. aik, an oak. ails, hinders, prevents. ain, own. amang, among. an, if. ance, once. ane, one. anent, about. aneuch, enough. auld, old. auld threep, a superstitious notion. avise, advise, deliberate. awa', away. aweel, well. awfu', awful. awmous, alms. aye, ever.

bairn, a child. baith, both. ballant, a ballad. banes, bones. bannock, a flat round or oval cake. barken, stiffen, dry to a crust. barrow-trams, the shafts of a hand barrow. baulks, ridges. berling, a galley. bield, a shelter, a house. biggit, built. billie, a brother, a companion. bing out and tour, go out and watch. binna, be not. birk, a birch tree. bit, a little. bittle, beat with a bat. bittock, a little bit. Black Peter, a portmanteau. blate, shy, bashful. blawn, blown. blear, obscure. blude, bluid, blood. blunker, a cloth printer. blythe, glad. boddle, a copper coin worth one third of a penny. bogle, a goblin, a spectre. bonnet, a cap. bonnie, bonny, pretty, fine. bonspiel, a match game at curling. bottle-head, beetle-head, stupid fellow. bow, a boll. bowster, a bolster. braw, fine. brigg, a bridge. brock, a badger, a dirty fellow. brod, a church collection plate. buckkar, a smuggling lugger. bully-huff, a bully, a braggart. burn, a brook. bye, besides.

ca', call. cake-house, a house of entertainment. callant, a stripling. cam, came. canny, lucky, cautious. cantle, a fragment. canty, cheerful. capons, castrated cocks. carle, a churl, an old man. cast, lot, fate. chapping-stick, a stick to strike with. cheerer, spirits and hot water. chield, a young man. chumlay, a chimney. clanjamfray, rabble. clashes, lies, scandal. claught, clutched, caught. clecking, hatching. clodded, threw heavily. close, a lane, a narrow passage. clour, a heavy blow. cloyed a dud, stolen a rag. collieshangie, an uproar. come o' will, a child of love. cottar, cottage. cramp-ring, shackles, fetters. cranking, creaking. craw, crow. creel, a basket. cuddy, an ass. cusp, an entrance to a house. cusser, a courser, a stallion.

daft, mad, foolish. darkmans, night. daurna, dare not. day-dawing, dawn. dead-thraw, death-agony. death-ruckle, death-rattle. deil-be-lickit, nothing, naught. dike, a wall, a ditch. dinging, slamming. dingle, a dell, a hollow. dizzen, a dozen. doo, a dove. dooket, dukit, a dovecot. doun, down. douse the glim, put out the light. dow, list, wish. drap, a drop. drumming, driving. dub, a puddle. duds, clothes.

eassel, provincial for eastward. een, eyes. endlang, along. eneugh, enough. evening, putting on the same level.

faem, foam. fair-strae, natural. fambles, hands. fash, trouble. fauld, a fold. fause, false. feared, afraid. fearsome, frightful. feck, a quantity. feckless, feeble. fell, a skin. fernseed, gather the, make invisible. fie, mad, foredoomed. fient a bit, never a bit fient a haet, not the least. fire-raising, setting fire. firlot, a quarter of a boll. fit, a foot. flesh, fleesh, a fleece. flick, cut. flit, remove. fond, glad to. forbears, ancestors. forbye, besides. foumart, a polecat. fowk, people. frae, from. frummagem'd, throttled, hanged. fu', full. fule-body, a foolish person.

gae, go. gaed, went. gane, gone. gang, go. gang-there-out, wandering. gangrel, vagrant. gar, make. gate, gait, way. gaun, going. gay, gey, very. gelding, a castrated horse. gentle or semple, high born or common people. gie, give. gliffing, a surprise, an instant. glower, glare. gowan, a field daisy. gowd, gold. gowpen, a double handful. greet, weep. grieve, an overseer. grippet, grasped, caught. grunds, grounds. gude, guid, good. gudeman, master of a house. gyre-carlings, witches.

ha', hall. hadden, held, gone. hae, have. hafflin, half grown. haick, hack. haill, whole. hallan, a partition. hame, home. hank, a skein of yarn. hansel, a present. hantle, a quantity. haud, hauld, hold. hauden, held. heezie, a lift. herds, herders. heuch, a crag, a steep bank. hinging, hanging. hinney, honey. hirsel, a flock. hizzie, a housewife, a hussy. hog, a young sheep. horning, a warrant for a debtor. houdie, a midwife. howm, flat low ground. humble-cow, a cow without horns. hunds, hounds.

ilka, every. ingans, onions. ingleside, fireside. I'se, I'll. ither, other.

jaw-hole, a sink. Jethart, Jedburgh. jo, a sweetheart.

kahn, a skiff. kaim, a low ridge, a comb. kain, part of a farm-rent paid in fowls. keep, a stronghold. keepit, kept, attended. ken, know. kenna, do not know. kibe, an ulcerated chilblain, a chapped heel. killogie, the open space before a kiln fire. kilt, upset. kilting, girding or tucking up. kimmer, a female gossip. kinder, children. kipper, cured salmon. kirk, church. kist, a chest, a coffin. kitchen-mort, kinchen-mort, a girl. kittle, tickle, ticklish. kitt, a number, the whole. knave, a boy. knevell, knead, beat severely. kobold, a hobgoblin.

laird, lord of the manor. lampit, a limpet. landloupers, persons of wandering tendencies. lang, long. lang or, long before. lang-lugged, long-eared. langsyne, long ago. lap and paunel, liquor and food. lassie, a young girl. latch, mire. leddy, a lady. lee, pasture land. leg bail, to give, to run away. letter-gae, the precentor is called by Allan Ramsay 'the letter-gae of haly rhyme.' leugh, laughed. levin, lightning, scorn. licks, blows. lift, the sky. like, as it were. limmer, a jade, a hussy. links, the windings of a river. lippen, trust. loan, an open place, a lane. loaning, a milking place. long bowls, ninepins. looby, a booby, a lout. loon, a clown, a rogue. loup, leap, start. low, blaze, flame. luckie, an old woman. lugs, ears. lunt, blaze, torch. lykewake, a watch at night over a dead body.

mair, more. mair by token, especially. maist, most. maun, must. meddling and making, interfering. messan, a little dog. milling in the darkmans, murder by night. mind, remember. minded, looked after. mirk, dark; pit mirk, pitch dark. moaned, mourned. Monanday, Monday. mony, many. moonshie, a secretary. morn, tomorrow. moss, a morass. moss-hag, a pit, a slough. muckle, great, much. muir, a moor, a heath. muscavado, unrefined sugar. mutchkin, a measure equal to an English pint.

na, nae, no. nane, none. nathless, nevertheless. needna, need not. nice, simple. now, the, at once.

odd-come-shortly, chance time not far in the future. ony, any. or, ere. orra, odd, occasional. orra time, occasionally. o't, of it. out, out in rebellion. out of house and hauld, destitute. outcast, a falling out, a quarrel. ower, over. owt, the exterior, out.

paiks, punishment. parritch, oatmeal porridge. peat-hag, a bog. penny-stane, a stone quoit. periapts, amulets. pike, pick. pinners, a headdress. pirn, a reel. pit, put. plash, splash. plough-gate of land, land that can be tilled with one plough. pock, a pouch, a bag. poinded, impounded. poschay, a post-chaise. pouches, pockets. pow, the head. powny, a pony. preceese, exact. precentor, a leader of congregational singing. prin, a pin. puir, poor.

quean, a young woman, a wench.

rade, rode. ramble, a spree. rampauging, raging. randle-tree, a horizontal bar across a chimney, on which pot-hooks are hung; sometimes used as an opprobrious epithet. randy, wild. ranging and riping, scouring and searching. rape, rope. rasp-house, a custom-house. red cock craw, kindle a fire. redding-straik, a blow received when trying to separate combatants. reek, smoke. reif and wear, robbery and injury. reise, a bough. reist, smoke. reiver, a robber. retour, return of a writ. rin, run. ripe, search. rive, rend, rob. rotten, rottan, a rat. roup, an auction. roupit, sold at auction. routing, snoring, bellowing. rubbit, robbed. rump and dozen, meat and drink, a good dinner. run goods, smuggled goods.

sack, sackcloth. sae, so. saft, soft. sain, bless. sair, sore. sail, shall. samyn, the same. sang, song. sark, a shirt. saugh, a willow tree. saul, soul. saut, salt. sax, six. scaff-raff, riff raff. scart, scratched, written on. schnaps, a dram of liquor. scones, flat round cakes. scouring the cramp-ring, said metaphorically for being thrown into fetters or, generally, into prison. screed o' drink, a drinking bout. sell'd, sold. semple, simple, poor people. shake-rag, a tatterdemalion. shanks, legs. shealing, sheiling, a shed, a hut. shear, cut. sherra, a sheriff. shoeing-horn, something that leads to more drinking. shoon, shoes. shouther, a shoulder. sic, so, such. siclike, such. siller, money. sinsyne, since. skeel, a bucket, a tub. slack, a hollow, a morass. slap, a breach. sleepery, sleepy. slow-hund, a sleuth hound. sma', small. smack, smaik, a rogue, a low wretch. snaw, snow. soup o' drink, a spoonful. souple, a cudgel. spae, foretell. speir, ask. sprug, a sparrow. spunk, a spark. start, betray. stell, a stall, a covert. stickit, stopped, hindered. stir your gear, disturb your goods. stark, a heifer, a bullock. stiver, a small Dutch coin. stoppit, stopped. stoup, a drinking vessel, a wooden pitcher. stown, stolen. strae, straw. strammel, straw. streik, stretch. suld, should. sune, soon. sunkets, delicacies, provisions of any kind. sunkie, a low stool. swear, difficult. swure, swore. syne, since.

ta'en, taken. tait, a tuft. tak, take. tap, the top. tass, a cup. tat, that. tell'd, told. tent, care. thack, thatch. thae, those. thegither, together. thereawa', thence, thereabout. thrapple, the windpipe, the throat. thristle, a thistle. till, to. tippenny, ale at twopence a bottle. tod, a fox. tolbooth, a jail. toom, empty. tow, a rope. trine to the cheat, get hanged. troking, intercourse, trafficking. trow, trust. tulzie, tuilzie, a scuffle, a brawl. twa, two. tweel, a web. tyke, a cur.

umwhile, formerly, late. uncanny, weird, unlucky. unco, strange, very. uphaud, uphold. upright man, the leader (and greatest rogue) of the gang.

wa', wall. wad, would. wadded, wedded. wae, woe. waefu', woeful. wale, choice. ware, spend. wark, work. warld, the world. warlock, a wizard. waster, a long spear. waur, worse. wean, a young child. wear, war. weary fa', curse. wedder, a wether. wee, small. weel, well. weel-faured, well-favored, prepossessing. weize, direct, incline. wessel, westward. wha, who. whaap, the (or the Hope), is the sheltered part or hollow of the hill. Hoff, howff, haaf, and haven are all modifications of the same word. wheen, a few. whigging, jogging. whiles, sometimes. whilk, which. whin, a few. whinger, a kind of knife, a hanger. whistle, give information against one. whittret, a weasel. wi', with. win, get. witters, the barbs of the spear. woo', wool. woodie, wuddie, a rope, a halter, the gallows. worricow, a hobgoblin. wots na, does not know. wrang, wrong. wrang side of the blanket, illegitimate. writer, an attorney. wuddie, a rope, the gallows. wuss, wish.

yaffing, chattering, barking. yet, yere, your. yont, beyond.

End of Project Gutenberg's Guy Mannering, Vol. II, by Sir Walter Scott