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.'
END OF VOLUME II
THE END
NOTES TO VOLUME I
NOTE 1, p. 25
The groaning malt mentioned in the text was the ale brewed for the
purpose of being drunk after the lady or goodwife's safe delivery. The
ken-no has a more ancient source, and perhaps the custom may be derived
from the secret rites of the Bona Dea. A large and rich cheese was made
by the women of the family, with great affectation of secrecy, for the
refreshment of the gossips who were to attend at the 'canny' minute.
This was the ken-no, so called because its existence was secret (that
is, presumed to be so) from all the males of the family, but especially
from the husband and master. He was accordingly expected to conduct
himself as if he knew of no such preparation, to act as if desirous to
press the female guests to refreshments, and to seem surprised at their
obstinate refusal. But the instant his back was turned the ken-no was
produced; and after all had eaten their fill, with a proper
accompaniment of the groaning malt, the remainder was divided among the
gossips, each carrying a large portion home with the same affectation
of great secrecy.
NOTE 2, p. 198
It is fitting to explain to the reader the locality described in
chapter xxii. There is, or rather I should say there WAS, a little inn
called Mumps's Hall, that is, being interpreted, Beggar's Hotel, near
to Gilsland, which had not then attained its present fame as a Spa. It
was a hedge alehouse, where the Border farmers of either country often
stopped to refresh themselves and their nags, in their way to and from
the fairs and trysts in Cumberland, and especially those who came from
or went to Scotland, through a barren and lonely district, without
either road or pathway, emphatically called the Waste of Bewcastle. At
the period when the adventures described in the novel are supposed to
have taken place, there were many instances of attacks by freebooters
on those who travelled through this wild district, and Mumps's Ha' had
a bad reputation for harbouring the banditti who committed such
depredations.
An old and sturdy yeoman belonging to the Scottish side, by surname an
Armstrong or Elliot, but well known by his soubriquet of Fighting
Charlie of Liddesdale, and still remembered for the courage he
displayed in the frequent frays which took place on the Border fifty or
sixty years since, had the following adventure in the Waste, which
suggested the idea of the scene in the text:--
Charlie had been at Stagshawbank Fair, had sold his sheep or cattle, or
whatever he had brought to market, and was on his return to Liddesdale.
There were then no country banks where cash could be deposited and
bills received instead, which greatly encouraged robbery in that wild
country, as the objects of plunder were usually fraught with gold. The
robbers had spies in the fair, by means of whom they generally knew
whose purse was best stocked, and who took a lonely and desolate road
homeward,--those, in short, who were best worth robbing and likely to
be most easily robbed.
All this Charlie knew full well; but he had a pair of excellent pistols
and a dauntless heart. He stopped at Mumps's Ha', notwithstanding the
evil character of the place. His horse was accommodated where it might
have the necessary rest and feed of corn; and Charlie himself, a
dashing fellow, grew gracious with the landlady, a buxom quean, who
used all the influence in her power to induce him to stop all night.
The landlord was from home, she said, and it was ill passing the Waste,
as twilight must needs descend on him before he gained the Scottish
side, which was reckoned the safest. But Fighting Charlie, though he
suffered himself to be detained later than was prudent, did not account
Mumps's Ha' a safe place to quarter in during the night. He tore
himself away, therefore, from Meg's good fare and kind words, and
mounted his nag, having first examined his pistols, and tried by the
ramrod whether the charge remained in them.
He proceeded a mile or two at a round trot, when, as the Waste
stretched black before him, apprehensions began to awaken in his mind,
partly arising out of Meg's unusual kindness, which he could not help
thinking had rather a suspicious appearance. He therefore resolved to
reload his pistols, lest the powder had become damp; but what was his
surprise, when he drew the charge, to find neither powder nor ball,
while each barrel had been carefully filled with TOW, up to the space
which the loading had occupied! and, the priming of the weapons being
left untouched, nothing but actually drawing and examining the charge
could have discovered the inefficiency of his arms till the fatal
minute arrived when their services were required. Charlie bestowed a
hearty Liddesdale curse on his landlady, and reloaded his pistols with
care and accuracy, having now no doubt that he was to be waylaid and
assaulted. He was not far engaged in the Waste, which was then, and is
now, traversed only by such routes as are described in the text, when
two or three fellows, disguised and variously armed, started from a
moss-hag, while by a glance behind him (for, marching, as the Spaniard
says, with his beard on his shoulder, he reconnoitred in every
direction) Charlie instantly saw retreat was impossible, as other two
stout men appeared behind him at some distance. The Borderer lost not a
moment in taking his resolution, and boldly trotted against his enemies
in front, who called loudly on him to stand and deliver; Charlie
spurred on, and presented his pistol. 'D--n your pistol,' said the
foremost robber, whom Charlie to his dying day protested he believed to
have been the landlord of Mumps's Ha','d--n your pistol! I care not a
curse for it.' 'Ay, lad,' said the deep voice of Fighting Charlie, 'but
the TOW'S out now.' He had no occasion to utter another word; the
rogues, surprised at finding a man of redoubted courage well armed,
instead of being defenceless, took to the moss in every direction, and
he passed on his way without farther molestation.
The author has heard this story told by persons who received it from
Fighting Charlie himself; he has also heard that Mumps's Ha' was
afterwards the scene of some other atrocious villainy, for which the
people of the house suffered. But these are all tales of at least half
a century old, and the Waste has been for many years as safe as any
place in the kingdom.
NOTE 3, p. 213
The author may here remark that the character of Dandie Dinmont was
drawn from no individual. A dozen, at least, of stout Liddesdale yeomen
with whom he has been acquainted, and whose hospitality he has shared
in his rambles through that wild country, at a time when it was totally
inaccessible save in the manner described in the text, might lay claim
to be the prototype of the rough, but faithful, hospitable, and
generous farmer. But one circumstance occasioned the name to be fixed
upon a most respectable individual of this class, now no more. Mr.
James Davidson of Hindlee, a tenant of Lord Douglas, besides the points
of blunt honesty, personal strength, and hardihood designed to be
expressed in the character of Dandie Dinmont, had the humour of naming
a celebrated race of terriers which he possessed by the generic names
of Mustard and Pepper (according as their colour was yellow or
greyish-black), without any other individual distinction except as
according to the nomenclature in the text. Mr. Davidson resided at
Hindlee, a wild farm on the very edge of the Teviotdale mountains, and
bordering close on Liddesdale, where the rivers and brooks divide as
they take their course to the Eastern and Western seas. His passion for
the chase in all its forms, but especially for fox-hunting, as followed
in the fashion described in chapter xxv, in conducting which he was
skilful beyond most men in the South Highlands, was the distinguishing
point in his character.
When the tale on which these comments are written became rather
popular, the name of Dandie Dinmont was generally given to him, which
Mr. Davidson received with great good-humour, only saying, while he
distinguished the author by the name applied to him in the country,
where his own is so common--'that the Sheriff had not written about him
mair than about other folk, but only about his dogs.' An English lady
of high rank and fashion, being desirous to possess a brace of the
celebrated Mustard and Pepper terriers, expressed her wishes in a
letter which was literally addressed to Dandie Dinmont, under which
very general direction it reached Mr. Davidson, who was justly proud of
the application, and failed not to comply with a request which did him
and his favourite attendants so much honour.
I trust I shall not be considered as offending the memory of a kind and
worthy man, if I mention a little trait of character which occurred in
Mr. Davidson's last illness. I use the words of the excellent clergyman
who attended him, who gave the account to a reverend gentleman of the
same persuasion:--
'I read to Mr. Davidson the very suitable and interesting truths you
addressed to him. He listened to them with great seriousness, and has
uniformly displayed a deep concern about his soul's salvation. He died
on the first Sabbath of the year (1820); an apoplectic stroke deprived
him in an instant of all sensation, but happily his brother was at his
bedside, for he had detained him from the meeting-house that day to be
near him, although he felt himself not much worse than usual. So you
have got the last little Mustard that the hand of Dandie Dinmont
bestowed.
'His ruling passion was strong even on the eve of death. Mr. Baillie's
fox-hounds had started a fox opposite to his window a few weeks ago,
and as soon as he heard the sound of the dogs his eyes glistened; he
insisted on getting out of bed, and with much difficulty got to the
window and there enjoyed the fun, as he called it. When I came down to
ask for him, he said, "he had seen Reynard, but had not seen his death.
If it had been the will of Providence," he added, "I would have liked
to have been after him; but I am glad that I got to the window, and am
thankful for what I saw, for it has done me a great deal of good."
Notwithstanding these eccentricities (adds the sensible and liberal
clergyman), I sincerely hope and believe he has gone to a better world,
and better company and enjoyments.'
If some part of this little narrative may excite a smile, it is one
which is consistent with the most perfect respect for the simple-minded
invalid and his kind and judicious religious instructor, who, we hope,
will not be displeased with our giving, we trust, a correct edition of
an anecdote which has been pretty generally circulated. The race of
Pepper and Mustard are in the highest estimation at this day, not only
for vermin-killing, but for intelligence and fidelity. Those who, like
the author, possess a brace of them, consider them as very desirable
companions.
NOTE 4, p. 232
The cleek here intimated is the iron hook, or hooks, depending from the
chimney of a Scottish cottage, on which the pot is suspended when
boiling. The same appendage is often called the crook. The salmon is
usually dried by hanging it up, after being split and rubbed with salt,
in the smoke of the turf fire above the cleeks, where it is said to
'reist,' that preparation being so termed. The salmon thus preserved is
eaten as a delicacy, under the name of kipper, a luxury to which Dr.
Redgill has given his sanction as an ingredient of the Scottish
breakfast.--See the excellent novel entitled MARRIAGE.
NOTE 5, p. 234
The distinction of individuals by nicknames when they possess no
property is still common on the Border, and indeed necessary, from the
number of persons having the same name. In the small village of
Lustruther, in Roxburghshire, there dwelt, in the memory of man, four
inhabitants called Andrew, or Dandie, Oliver. They were distinguished
as Dandie Eassil-gate, Dandie Wassilgate, Dandie Thumbie, and Dandie
Dumbie. The two first had their names from living eastward and westward
in the street of the village; the third from something peculiar in the
conformation of his thumb; the fourth from his taciturn habits.
It is told as a well-known jest, that a beggar woman, repulsed from
door to door as she solicited quarters through a village of Annandale,
asked, in her despair, if there were no Christians in the place. To
which the hearers, concluding that she inquired for some persons so
surnamed, answered, 'Na, na, there are nae Christians here; we are a'
Johnstones and Jardines.'
NOTE 6, p. 244
The mysterious rites in which Meg Merrilies is described as engaging
belong to her character as a queen of her race. All know that gipsies
in every country claim acquaintance with the gift of fortune-telling;
but, as is often the case, they are liable to the superstitions of
which they avail themselves in others. The correspondent of Blackwood,
quoted in the Introduction to this Tale, gives us some information on
the subject of their credulity.
'I have ever understood,' he says, speaking of the Yetholm gipsies,'
that they are extremely superstitious, carefully noticing the formation
of the clouds, the flight of particular birds, and the soughing of the
winds, before attempting any enterprise. They have been known for
several successive days to turn back with their loaded carts, asses,
and children, upon meeting with persons whom they considered of unlucky
aspect; nor do they ever proceed on their summer peregrinations without
some propitious omen of their fortunate return. They also burn the
clothes of their dead, not so much from any apprehension of infection
being communicated by them, as the conviction that the very
circumstance of wearing them would shorten the days of their living.
They likewise carefully watch the corpse by night and day till the time
of interment, and conceive that "the deil tinkles at the lyke-wake" of
those who felt in their dead-thraw the agonies and terrors of remorse.'
These notions are not peculiar to the gipsies; but, having been once
generally entertained among the Scottish common people, are now only
found among those who are the most rude in their habits and most devoid
of instruction. The popular idea, that the protracted struggle between
life and death is painfully prolonged by keeping the door of the
apartment shut, was received as certain by the superstitious eld of
Scotland. But neither was it to be thrown wide open. To leave the door
ajar was the plan adopted by the old crones who understood the
mysteries of deathbeds and lykewakes. In that case there was room for
the imprisoned spirit to escape; and yet an obstacle, we have been
assured, was offered to the entrance of any frightful form which might
otherwise intrude itself. The threshold of a habitation was in some
sort a sacred limit, and the subject of much superstition. A bride,
even to this day, is always lifted over it, a rule derived apparently
from the Romans.
NOTES TO VOLUME 2
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 (Complete), by Sir Walter Scott