ROSE BRADWARDINE AND HER FATHER
Miss Bradwardine was but seventeen; yet, at the last races of the county
town of--, upon her health being proposed among a round of beauties,
the Laird of Bumperquaigh, permanent feast-master and croupier of the
Bautherwhillery Club, not only said MORE to the pledge in a pint bumper
of Bourdeaux, but, ere pouring forth the libation, denominated the
divinity to whom it was dedicated, 'the Rose of Tully-Veolan;' upon
which festive occasion, three cheers were given by all the sitting
members of that respectable society, whose throats the wine had left
capable of such exertion. Nay, I am well assured, that the sleeping
partners of the company snorted applause, and that although strong
bumpers and weak brains had consigned two or three to the floor, yet
even these, fallen as they were from their high estate, and weltering--I
will carry the parody no further--uttered divers inarticulate sounds,
intimating their assent to the motion.
Such unanimous applause could not be extorted but by acknowledged merit;
and Rose Bradwardine not only deserved it, but also the approbation
of much more rational persons than the Bautherwhillery Club could have
mustered, even before discussion of the first MAGNUM. She was indeed a
very pretty girl of the Scotch cast of beauty, that is, with a profusion
of hair of paley gold, and a skin like the snow of her own mountains in
whiteness. Yet she had not a pallid or pensive cast of countenance;
her features, as well as her temper, had a lively expression; her
complexion, though not florid, was so pure as to seem transparent, and
the slightest emotion sent her whole blood at once to her face and neck.
Her form, though under the common size, was remarkably elegant, and her
motions light, easy, and unembarrassed. She came from another part
of the garden to receive Captain Waverley, with a manner that hovered
between bashfulness and courtesy.
The first greetings past, Edward learned from her that the dark hag,
which had somewhat puzzled him in the butler's account of his master's
avocations, had nothing to do either with a black cat or a broomstick,
but was simply a portion of oak copse which was to be felled that day.
She offered, with diffident civility, to show the stranger the way to
the spot, which, it seems, was not far distant; but they were prevented
by the appearance of the Baron of Bradwardine in person, who, summoned
by David Gellatley, now appeared, 'on hospitable thoughts intent,'
clearing the ground at a prodigious rate with swift and long strides,
which reminded Waverley of the seven-league boots of the nursery fable.
He was a tall, thin, athletic figure; old indeed, and grey-haired, but
with every muscle rendered as tough as whip-cord by constant exercise.
He was dressed carelessly, and more like a Frenchman than an Englishman
of the period, while, from his hard features and perpendicular rigidity
of stature, he bore some resemblance to a Swiss officer of the guards,
who had resided some time at Paris, and caught the costume, but not the
ease or manner of its inhabitants. The truth was, that his language and
habits were as heterogeneous as his external appearance.
Owing to his natural disposition to study, or perhaps to a very general
Scottish fashion of giving young men of rank a legal education, he
had been bred with a view to the Bar. But the politics of his family
precluding the hope of his rising in that profession, Mr. Bradwardine
travelled with high reputation for several years, and made some
campaigns in foreign service. After his DEMELE with the law of high
treason in 1715, he had lived in retirement, conversing almost entirely
with those of his own principles in the vicinage. The pedantry of the
lawyer, superinduced upon the military pride of the soldier, might
remind a modern of the days of the zealous volunteer service, when the
bar-gown of our pleaders was often hung over a blazing uniform. To this
must be added the prejudices of ancient birth and Jacobite politics,
greatly strengthened by habits of solitary and secluded authority,
which, though exercised only within the bounds of his half-cultivated
estate, was there indisputable and undisputed. For, as he used to
observe, 'the lands of Bradwardine, Tully-Veolan, and others, had
been erected into a free barony by a charter from David the First, CUM
LIBERALI POTEST. HABENDI CURIAS ET JUSTICIAS, CUM FOSSA ET FURCA (LIE
pit and gallows) ET SAKA ET SOKA, ET THOL ET THEAM, ET INFANG-THIEF ET
OUTFANG-THIEF, SIVE HAND-HABEND. SIVE BAK-BARAND.' The peculiar meaning
of all these cabalistical words few or none could explain; but they
implied, upon the whole, that the Baron of Bradwardine might, in case
of delinquency, imprison, try, and execute his vassals at his pleasure.
Like James the First, however, the present possessor of this authority
was more pleased in talking about prerogative than in exercising it;
and, excepting that he imprisoned two poachers in the dungeon of the old
tower of Tully-Veolan, where they were sorely frightened by ghosts,
and almost eaten by rats, and that he set an old woman in the JOUGS (or
Scottish pillory) for saying 'there were mair fules in the laird's
ha' house than Davie Gellatley,' I do not learn that he was accused
of abusing his high powers. Still, however, the conscious pride
of possessing them gave additional importance to his language and
deportment.
At his first address to Waverley, it would seem that the hearty pleasure
he felt to behold the nephew of his friend had somewhat discomposed the
stiff and upright dignity of the Baron of Bradwardine's demeanour, for
the tears stood in the old gentleman's eyes, when, having first shaken
Edward heartily by the hand in the English fashion, he embraced him A
LA MODE FRANCAISE, and kissed him on both sides of his face; while
the hardness of his grip, and the quantity of Scotch snuff which his
ACCOLADE communicated, called corresponding drops of moisture to the
eyes of his guest.
'Upon the honour of a gentleman,' he said, 'but it makes me young again
to see you here, Mr. Waverley!' A worthy scion of the old stock of
Waverley-Honour--SPES ALTERA, as Maro hath it--and you have the look of
the old line, Captain Waverley, not so portly yet as my old friend Sir
Everard--MAIS CELA VIENDRA AVEC LE TEMPS, as my Dutch acquaintance,
Baron Kikkitbroeck, said of the SAGESSE of MADAME SON EPOUSE.--And so ye
have mounted the cockade? Right, right; though I could have wished the
colour different, and so I would ha' deemed might Sir Everard. But no
more of that; I am old, and times are changed.--And how does the worthy
knight baronet, and the fair Mrs. Rachel?--Ah, ye laugh, young man!
In troth she was the fair Mrs. Rachel in the year of grace seventeen
hundred and sixteen; but time passes--ET SINGULA PRAEDANTUR ANNI--that
is most certain. But once again, ye are most heartily welcome to my poor
house of Tully-Veolan!--Hie to the house, Rose, and see that Alexander
Saunderson leaks out the old Chateau Margaux, which I sent from
Bourdeaux to Dundee in the year 1713.'
Rose tripped off demurely enough till she turned the first corner, and
then ran with the speed of a fairy, that she might gain leisure, after
discharging her father's commission, to put her own dress in order, and
produce all her little finery, an occupation for which the approaching
dinner hour left but limited time.
'We cannot rival the luxuries of your English table, Captain Waverley,
or give you the EPULAE LAUTIORES of Wavery-Honour--I say EPULAE rather
than PRANDIUM, because the latter phrase is popular; EPULAE AD SENATUM,
PRANDIUM VERO AD POPULUM ATTINET, says Suetonius Tranquillus. But I
trust ye will applaud my Bourdeaux; C'EST D'UNE OREILLE, as Captain
Vinsauf used to say--VINUM PRIMAE NOTAE, the Principal of St. Andrews
denominated it. And, once more, Captain Waverley, right glad am I that
ye are here to drink the best my cellar can make forthcoming.'
This speech, with the necessary interjectional answers, continued from
the lower alley where they met, up to the door of the house, where
four or five servants in old-fashioned liveries, headed by Alexander
Saunderson, the butler, who now bore no token of the sable stains of the
garden, received them in grand costume,
In an old hall hung round with pikes and with bows,
With old bucklers and corselets that had borne many shrewd blows.
With much ceremony, and still more real kindness, the Baron, without
stopping in any intermediate apartment, conducted his guest through
several into the great dining parlour, wainscoted with black oak, and
hung round with the pictures of his ancestry, where a table was set
forth in form for six persons, and an old-fashioned beaufet displayed
all the ancient and massive plate of the Bradwardine family. A bell was
now heard at the head of the avenue; for an old man, who acted as porter
upon gala days, had caught the alarm given by Waverley's arrival, and,
repairing to his post, announced the arrival of other guests.
These, as the Baron assured his young friend, were very estimable
persons. 'There was the young Laird of Balmawhapple, a Falconer by
surname, of the house of Glenfarquhar, given right much to field
sports--GAUDAT EQUIS ET CANIBUS--but a very discreet young gentleman.
Then there was the Laird of Killancureit, who had devoted his leisure
UNTILL tillage and agriculture, and boasted himself to be possessed of a
bull of matchless merit, brought from the county of Devon (the Damnonia,
of the Romans, if we can trust Robert of Cirencester). He is, as ye may
well suppose from such a tendency, but of yeoman extraction--SERVABIT
ODOREM TESTA DIU--and I believe, between ourselves, his grandsire was
from the wrong side of the Border--one Bullsegg, who came hither as a
steward, or bailiff, or ground-officer, or something in that department,
to the last Girnigo of Killancureit, who died of an atrophy. After his
master's death, sir,--ye would hardly believe such a scandal,--but this
Bullsegg, being portly and comely of aspect, intermarried with the lady
dowager, who was young and amorous, and possessed himself of the estate,
which devolved on this unhappy woman by a settlement of her umwhile
husband, in direct contravention of an unrecorded taillie, and to the
prejudice of the disponer's own flesh and blood, in the person of his
natural heir and seventh cousin, Girnigo of Tipperhewit, whose family
was so reduced by the ensuing lawsuit, that his representative is now
serving as a private gentleman-sentinel in the Highland Black Watch. But
this gentleman, Mr. Bullsegg of Killancureit that now is, has good blood
in his veins by the mother and grandmother, who were both of the family
of Pickletillim, and he is well liked and looked upon, and knows his
own place. And God forbid, Captain Waverley, that we of irreproachable
lineage should exult over him, when it may be, that in the eighth,
ninth, or tenth generation, his progeny may rank, in a manner, with the
old gentry of the country. Rank and ancestry, sir, should be the last
words in the mouths of us of unblemished race--VIX EA NOSTRA VOCO,
as Naso saith.--There is, besides, a clergyman of the true (though
suffering) Episcopal church of Scotland. He was a confessor in her cause
after the year 1715, when a Whiggish mob destroyed his meeting-house,
tore his surplice, and plundered his dwelling-house of four silver
spoons, intromitting also with his mart and his meal-ark, and with two
barrels, one of single, and one of double ale, besides three bottles of
brandy. [7] My Baron-Bailie and doer, Mr. Duncan Macwheeble,
is the fourth on our list. There is a question, owing to the incertitude
of ancient orthography, whether he belongs to the clan of Wheedle or of
Quibble, but both have produced persons eminent in the law.'--
As such he described them by person and name,
They entered, and dinner was served as they came.