In the meantime, as much friendliness and intercourse was maintained
between the families of Grippy and Plealands as could reasonably
be expected from the characters and dispositions of the respective
inmates. Shortly, however, after the conversation related in the
preceding chapter had taken place, it happened that, as Malachi was
returning on horseback from Glasgow, where he had lost a law-suit, long
prosecuted with the most relentless pertinacity against one of his
tenants, he was overtaken on the Mairns Moor by one of those sudden
squalls and showers, which the genius of the place so often raises, no
doubt purposely, to conceal from the weary traveller the dreariness
of the view around, and being wetted into the skin, the cold which he
caught in consequence, and the irritation of his mind, brought on a
fever, that terminated fatally on the fifth day.
His funeral was conducted according to the fashion of the age; but the
day appointed was raw, windy, and sleety; not, however, so much so as
to prevent the friends of the deceased from flocking in from every
quarter. The assemblage that arrived far transcended all that can be
imagined, in these economical days, of the attendance requisite on any
such occasion. The gentry were shown into the dining-room, and into
every room that could be fitted up with planks and deals for their
reception. The barn received the tenantry, and a vast multitude--the
whole clanjamphry from all the neighbouring parishes--assembled on the
green in front of the house.
The Laird in his lifetime maintained a rough and free hospitality; and,
as his kindred and acquaintance expected, there was neither scant nor
want at his burial. The profusion of the services of seed-cake and wine
to the in-door guests was in the liberalest spirit of the time; and
tobacco-pipes, shortbread, and brandy, unadulterated by any immersion
of the gauger’s rod, were distributed, with unmeasured abundance, to
those in the barn and on the green.
Mr. Kilfuddy, the parish minister, said grace to the gentry in the
dining-room; and the elders, in like manner, performed a similar part
in the other rooms. We are not sure if we may venture to assert that
grace was said to the company out of doors. Mr. Taws, the dominie of
Bodleton, has indeed repeatedly declared, that he did himself ask
a blessing; but he has never produced any other evidence that was
satisfactory to us. Indeed, what with the drinking, the blast, and the
sleet, it was not reasonable to expect much attention would be paid to
any prayer; and therefore we shall not insist very particularly on this
point.
The Braehill church-yard was at a considerable distance from
Plealands-house, and hearses not being then in fashion in that part
of the country, one of the Laird’s own carts was drawn out, and the
coffin placed on it for conveyance, while the services were going
round the company. How it happened, whether owing to the neglect of
Thomas Cabinet, the wright, who acted the part of undertaker, and who
had, with all his men, more to attend to than he could well manage, in
supplying the multitude with refreshments; or whether John Drappie,
the old servant that was to drive the cart, had, like many others,
got a service overmuch, we need not pause to inquire:--it, however, so
happened, that, by some unaccountable and never explained circumstance,
the whole body of the assembled guests arranged themselves in funereal
array as well and as steadily as the generality of them could, and
proceeded towards the church-yard--those in the van believing that
the cart with the coffin was behind, and their followers in the rear
committing a similar mistake, by supposing that it was before them
in front. Thus both parties, in ignorance of the simple fact, that
the coffin and cart were still standing at the house door, proceeded,
with as much gravity and decorum as possible, to the church-yard gate,
where they halted. As the gentlemen in front fell back to the right and
left, to open an avenue for the body to be brought up, the omission
was discovered, and also that there was no other way of performing the
interment but by returning, as expeditiously as possible, to the house
for the body.
By this time the weather, which had been all the morning cold and
blustering, was become quite tempestuous. The wind raved in the trees
and hedges--the sleet was almost thickened into a blinding snow,
insomuch, that, when the company reached the house, the greater number
of them were so chilled that they stood in need of another service, and
another was of course handed round on the green; of which the greater
number liberally and freely partaking, were soon rendered as little
able to wrestle against the wind as when they originally set out.
However, when the procession was formed a second time, Thomas Cabinet
taking care to send the cart with the coffin on before, the whole
moved again towards the church-yard, it is said, with a degree of less
decorum than in their former procession. Nay, there is no disguising
the fact, that more than two or three of the company, finding
themselves, perhaps, unable to struggle against the blast, either lay
down of their own voluntary accord on the road, or were blown over by
the wind.
When the procession had a second time reached the church-yard, and
Thomas Cabinet, perspiring at every pore, was wiping his bald head with
his coat sleeve, his men got the coffin removed from the cart, and
placed on the spokes, and the relatives, according to their respective
degrees of propinquity, arranged themselves to carry it. The bearers,
however, either by means of the headstones and the graves over which
their path lay, or by some other cause, walked so unevenly, that those
on the one side pushed against their corresponding kindred on the
other, in such a manner, that the coffin was borne rollingly along for
some time, but without any accident, till the relations on the right
side gave a tremendous lurch, in which they drew the spokes out of the
hands of the mourners on the left, and the whole pageant fell with a
dreadful surge to the ground.
This accident, however, was soon rectified; the neighbours, who were
not bearers, assisted the fallen to rise, and Thomas Cabinet, with his
men, carried the coffin to its place of rest, and having laid it on the
two planks which were stretched across the grave, assembled the nearest
kin around, and gave the cords into their hands, that they might lower
the Laird into his last bed. The betherel and his assistant then drew
out the planks, and the sudden jerk of the coffin, when they were
removed, gave such a tug to those who had hold of the cords, that it
pulled them down, head foremost, into the grave after it. Fortunately,
however, none were buried but the body; for, by dint of the best
assistance available on the spot, the living were raised, and thereby
enabled to return to their respective homes, all as jocose and as happy
as possible.