Some local travellers of about twenty-five years' practice, may still
remember the keeper of a toll-bar on one of the western approaches to
Glasgow, known in his neighbourhood as English John. The prefix was
given, I believe, in honour of his dialect, which was remarkably pure
and polished for one of his station in those days; and the solution of
that problem was, that he had been from childhood, till the gray was
thickening on his hair, in the service of an English family, who had
come into possession, and constantly resided on, a handsome estate in
his native parish in Dumbartonshire.
Through their interest, he had been appointed to the office of power
and trust in which I made his acquaintance. John was one of my
earliest friends, though the remnant of his name was never heard nor
inquired after by me. The great town has now grown much nearer his
toll-house, which then stood alone on the country road, with no
building in sight but the school, at which I, and some two score of
the surrounding juveniles, were supposed to be trained in wisdom's
ways, by the elder brother of our parish minister. A painstaking,
kindly teacher he was; but the toll-house was a haunt more pleasant to
our young fancies than his seminary. John was the general friend and
confidant of all the boys; he settled our disputes, made the best tops
and balls for us, taught us a variety of new tricks in play, and
sometimes bestowed upon us good advices, which were much sooner
forgotten. John never married. He had a conviction, which was
occasionally avowed, that all women were troublesome; and whether this
evidence be considered _pro_ or _con_, he was a man of rough sense and
rustic piety, of a most fearless, and, what the Germans call, a
self-standing nature--for solitude or society came all alike to John.
You would as soon expect a pine-tree to be out of sorts, as his hard,
honest face, and muscular frame. John was never sick, or disturbed in
any way; he performed his own domestic duties with a neatness and
regularity known to few housekeepers, and was a faithful and most
uncompromising guardian of the toll-bar. I well remember how our young
imaginations were impressed with the fact, that no man could pass,
without, as it were, paying tribute to him; and George IV., though he
appeared on the coppers with which we bought apples, cast by no means
so mighty a shadow on our minds as English John. Before this glory
waned, I was removed from his neighbourhood, being sent to cheer the
heart and secure the legacy of a certain uncle who was a writer to the
Signet in Edinburgh, and believed to be in profitable practice and
confirmed bachelorhood. The worthy man has long ago married his
landlady's daughter, and been blessed with a family sufficient to fill
a church-pew. My own adventures--how I grew from garment to garment,
how I became a law-student, and at length a writer myself--have little
to do with the present narrative, and are therefore spared the reader
in detail; but the first startling intelligence I received from home
was, that English John had resigned his important office at the
toll-house, and gone, nobody knew whither!
Years had passed; my professional studies were finished, and I had
occasion to visit a Fife laird near the East Neuk. The gentleman was
notable for his taste in kitchen-gardening; and having a particularly
fine bed of Jerusalem artichokes which I must see, he conducted me to
the scene of his triumphs, when, hard at work with the rake and hoe,
whom should I find as the much esteemed gardener, but my old friend
English John! His hair had grown quite gray, and his look strangely
grave, since last I saw him: time had altered me still more;
nevertheless, John knew me at once--he had always a keen eye--but I
perceived it was his wish not to be recognised at all in presence of
the laird. That worthy was one of those active spirits who extend
their superintendence to every department. He commanded in the pantry
as well as on the farm; and while expatiating over the artichokes, a
private message from his lady summoned him back to the house, as I
sincerely believe, on some matter connected with the dinner; and he
left me, with an understood permission to admire the artichokes, and
the garden in general, as long as I pleased. Scarcely was he fairly
out of sight, till I was at the gardener's side. 'John, my old
fellow,' cried I, grasping his hand, 'I'm glad to see you once again.
How has the world behaved to you these many years?'
'Pretty well, Master Willie,' said John, heartily returning my shake;
'and I'm glad to see you too; but your memory must be uncommon good,
for many a one of the boys has passed me by on street and highway. How
have they all turned out?' And he commenced a series of inquiries
after schoolmates and old neighbours, to which my answers were as
usual in such cases--some were dead, some were married, and some gone
far away.
'But, John,' said I at last, determined to make out the mystery which
had so long puzzled me and the entire parish--'in exchange for all my
news, tell me why you left the toll-house? It was surely a better
place than this?'
'You know what the old proverb says, Master Willie: "Change is
lightsome,"' said John, beginning to dig, as if he would fain stave
off the explanation.
'Ha, John, that wont do!' said I; 'your mind was never so unsteady.
Tell me the truth, for old times' sake; and if there is anything in
the story that should not be made public, you know I was always a
capital secret-keeper. Maybe it was a love-matter, John: are you
married yet?'
'No, Master Willie,' cried my old friend, with a look of the most
sincere self-gratulation I ever saw. 'But it's a queer story, and one
I shouldn't care for telling; only, you were always a discreet boy,
and it rather presses on my mind at times. The master won't be back
for awhile; he'll have the roast to try, and the pudding to taste--not
to talk of seeing the table laid out, for there are to be some
half-dozen besides yourself to-day at dinner. That's his way, you see.
And I'll tell you what took me from the toll-house--but mind, never
mention it, as you would keep peace in the west country.'
This is John's story, as nearly in his own words as I can call them to
mind:--
* * * * *
The family in whose service I was brought up lived on their estate in
Dumbartonshire, which came through the mistress of the mansion, who
had been heiress of entail, and a lady in her own right; we called her
Lady Catherine, and a prouder woman never owned either estate or
title. Her father had been a branch of the Highland family to whom the
property originally belonged. Her mother was sprung from the old
French nobility, an emigrant of the first Revolution, and she had been
brought up in England, and married in due time to an Honourable Mr
---- there. When she first came to the estate, her husband had been
some years dead, and Lady Catherine brought with her a son, who was to
be heir--at that time a boy like myself--and two handsome grown-up
daughters. The castle was a great fabric, partly old and partly new.
It stood in the midst of a noble park, with tall trees and red deer in
it. Its last possessor had been a stingy old bachelor; but after Lady
Catherine's coming, the housekeeping was put on a grand scale. There
was a retinue of English servants, and continual company. I remember
it well, for just then my poor mother died. She had been a widow,
living in a low cottage hard by the park-wall, with me and a gray cat
for company, and her spinning-wheel for our support. I was but a child
when she died; and having neither uncle nor aunt in the parish, they
took me, I think, by her ladyship's order, into the castle, to run
small errands, and help in the garden; from which post, in process of
time, I rose to that of footman. Lady Catherine was in great odour
with the country gentry for her high-breeding, her fashionable
connections, and her almost boundless hospitality. She was popular
with the tenantry too, for there was not a better managed estate in
the west, and the factor had general orders against distress and
ejectment.
They said her ladyship had been reckoned a beauty in London
drawing-rooms, and our parish thought her wonderfully grand for the
gay dresses and rich jewellery she wore. Doubtless, these were but the
cast-offs of the season, for regularly every spring she and the family
went up to London, where they kept a fine house, and what is called
the best society. How much the gay dresses had to do with the beauty
is not for me to say, but Lady Catherine was a large, stately woman,
with a dark complexion, and very brilliant red, which the servants
whispered was laid on in old court fashion. Her manner to her equals
was graceful, and to her inferiors, gracious; but there was a look of
pride in her dark gray eyes, and a stern resolution about the
compressed lips, which struck my childish mind with strange fear, and
kept older hearts in awe. Her daughters, Florence and Agnes, were
pictures of their mother--proud, gay ladies, but thought the flower of
the county. Their portions were good, and they would have been
co-heiresses but for their brother Arthur. He was the youngest, but so
different from his mother and sisters, that you wouldn't have thought
him of the same family. His fair face and clear blue eyes, his curly
brown hair and merry look, had no likeness to them, though he was not
a whit behind them in air or stature. At eighteen, there was not a
finer lad in the shire; and he had a frank, kindly nature, which made
the tenantry rejoice in the prospect of his being their future
landlord.
Near the castle there stood a farmhouse, occupied by an old man whose
great-grandfather had cultivated the same fields. He was not rich, but
much respected by his neighbours for an honest, upright life. His wife
was as old as himself. They had been always easy-living people, and
had no child but one only daughter. Menie was a delicately pretty
girl, a little spoiled, perhaps, in her station, for both father and
mother made a queen of her at home. She was never allowed to do any
rough work, was always dressed, and her neighbours said, kept in the
parlour. Menie had a great many admirers, but her parents thought her
too good for everybody, and had a wonderful belief of their own, that
she was somehow to get a great match, and be made a lady. There was a
strange truth in that notion, as things turned out, for we servants at
the castle began to remark how often the young master was seen going
and coming about the farmhouse. Maybe the old farmer and his wife
encouraged him, for they had a story concerning their own descent from
some great chief of the western Highlands, and a family of wild proud
cousins, who lived up among the hills; but of this I know nothing
more, only that the farmer's daughter was the prettiest girl in the
parish. Master Arthur was beginning his nineteenth year, and there was
a storm up stairs, such as had never been heard before in the castle,
when Lady Catherine found out what was going on, as I think through
our minister, who considered it his duty to let her know what every
one talked of, but nobody else would dare to mention in her presence.
Whether the tempest was more than Master Arthur could stand, or
whether Lady Catherine, in her fury--for she had no joke of a tongue
and temper--said something of Menie which drove the boy to finish the
business in his own way, was long a disputed point in the servants'
hall; but next morning he was missed in the castle, and in the course
of my duties the same forenoon, I brought a letter from the village
post-office, the reading of which sent the young ladies off in
hysterics, and made Lady Catherine retire to her room--for it
announced that her heir of entail and the farmer's daughter were gone
to get married in Glasgow.
The young ladies recovered in about two hours, and her ladyship came
out, but only to prepare for a journey to Paris; and quick work she
made of it. Within twenty-four hours from the receipt of that letter,
she and her daughters were off in the family carriage; the best part
of the servants despatched to live at their town-house on board-wages;
all the good rooms locked up, and nobody but the gardener, a
kitchen-girl, and myself left with the old housekeeper at the castle.
The next news we heard was, that the old farmer and his wife had set
out to bring home their daughter and son-in-law, saying--poor people,
in their pride or folly--that Menie and her husband could live with
them till Providence cleared their way to the estate, which nobody
could keep from them. I believe it was that speech, coming to her ears
by some busy tongue or other, that made Lady Catherine so bitter
afterwards; but Master Arthur and his bride came home to the
farmhouse, where the parlour and the best bedroom were set apart for
their use; and the poor old father and mother were proud to serve and
entertain them. They were a young pair; for, as I have said, he was in
his nineteenth, and she in her seventeenth year--a handsome pair, too,
and more alike than one would have supposed from the difference of
their birth. Menie had a genteel, quiet carriage, and really looked
like a lady in the church-pew beside our young master, whom we seldom
saw but at a distance--for his spirit was too high to come near the
castle--and though it wasn't just told us, we all knew that going to
the farmhouse would be reckoned the full value of our places.
It was the fall of the year when Lady Catherine left us--all that
winter she spent in Paris; and when the spring again came round, we
heard of her opening house with even more than usual gaiety in London.
That was a great season with her ladyship. In its course, she got her
daughters both married to her mind. The one wedded a baronet, and the
other a right honourable; but scarcely had the newspapers fully
announced his sisters' wedding-breakfasts, and how the happy pairs set
out, when Master Arthur was seized with sudden sickness. He had been
fishing in a mountain-lake, and got drenched to the skin by the rain
of a thunder-storm, overexerted himself in walking home, and caught a
pleurisy. The whole parish felt for the poor young man, who had been
so hardly used by his mother, and many were the inquiries made for him
at the farmhouse. There was wild wo there, for every day he got worse;
and within the week, Menie was left a widow. Lady Catherine had gone
back to Paris at the close of the season; one of her married daughters
was in Italy, and the other in Switzerland; but two cousins of their
father were to be found in England; and Master Arthur was laid in the
family vault, under our old parish church, before the intelligence
reached them. Lady Catherine came back in deep mourning, and alone,
but not a whit subdued in spirit: she had been heard to say, that her
son was better dead than disgraced; and her estate was at least safe
from being shared by peasants. Of her daughter-in-law, she never took
the slightest notice. People said, the poor young widow's heart was
broken, for she had thought more of Arthur than of his rank and
property, and kept well out of the proud, hard woman's way. Her
ladyship did not seem to like living at the castle; she stayed only to
regulate matters with the factor at Martinmas, and went back again to
London. Before she went, a report began to rise, that poor Menie had
drooped and pined into a real sickness. They said it was a rapid
decline, and a dog would have pitied the father and mother's grief.
How strangely they strove to keep that only child, asking the prayers
of the congregation, and sending for the best doctors; but all was in
vain, for Menie died some days before Christmas. The girl had a simple
wish to rest beside Arthur. It was the last words she spoke; and her
relations believed that, being his wife, she had a right to a place in
the vault without asking anybody's leave. So they laid her quietly
beside her husband, no one about the castle caring to interfere,
except the factor, who thought it incumbent on him to let her ladyship
know.
By way of answer to his letter, down came Lady Catherine herself, one
dark, wintry morning; and, without so much as changing her travelling
dress, she sent for four labourers, took them with her to the church,
and saying her family burying-place was never intended for a peasant's
daughter, made them take out Menie's coffin, and leave it at her
parents' door. They said that the old pair never got over that sight;
and the mother, in her bitterness of heart, declared that Providence
had many a way to punish pride, and the woman who had disturbed her
dead child, would never be suffered to keep her own grave in peace.
The story made a marvellous stir in our parish, and grand as Lady
Catherine was, she did not escape blame from all quarters. There was a
great gathering of Highland relatives and Lowland friends to a second
funeral, when they laid poor Menie among her humble kindred in the
church-yard. It was but a little way from the park gate, and I stood
there to see the crowd scatter off in that frosty forenoon. Many a sad
and angry look was cast in the direction of the castle; but my
attention was particularly drawn to an old man and two boys, who stood
gazing on the place. He was close on the threescore-and-ten--they were
little more than children; but all three had the same gaunt, yet
powerful frames; dark-red hair, which in the old man was but slightly
sprinkled with gray; almost swarthy complexions; and a fierce, hard
look in the deep-set eyes. By after inquiries, I learned that these
were the father of the Highland cousin family, and his two youngest
sons. There were three elder brothers, but they were married, and
settled on rough sheep-farms; and the old man intended to maintain the
ancient honours of his house, by putting his younger boys into some of
the learned professions.
The married sisters, now heiresses of entail, never visited the castle
again in my time. Lady Catherine came regularly at the terms from
London, where she lived constantly; but her stay was no longer than
the rent-roll required, and her maid said she rested but badly at
night. So years passed on, and I rose in the service. On one of her
visits, Lady Catherine thought I would do for a footman, which she
happened to want, and sent me to be trained at the house in London.
What great and gay doings I saw there needn't be told just now. Lady
Catherine kept the best and most fashionable company, and she was
never at home an evening that the house was not full. There was money
to be made, and plenty of all things; but I did not like it; and
having saved a trifle, one of her ladyship's sons-in-law--he was the
best of the two--got me the place at the toll-bar.
You remember me there, Master Willie, and what great times we had on
Saturday afternoons. You may recollect, too, how many foot-passengers
used to come and go. It was my amusement to watch them when I had
nothing better to do; but of all who passed my window, there were none
took my attention so completely as two young men, who always walked
arm-in-arm, and seemed to be brothers. I thought I had seen their
strongly-marked Highland faces before, and by degrees learned that
they were none other than the old man's two sons, who had been at poor
Menie's last funeral, but were now grown up, and studying for the
medical profession at the college in Glasgow. Their father evidently
kept them on short allowance, judging from their coarse tartan
clothes, and continual munching of oaten cakes: but I was told they
were hard students, and particularly clever in the anatomy class. One
dark, dreary morning, about the Christmas-time, I noted that Lady
Catherine and her family had been in my dreams all night--their grand
house, and gay goings-on in London, mingling strangely with the old
story of Master Arthur and the farmer's daughter. When the newspaper,
which I shared with the schoolmaster, came, judge of my astonishment
to read that her ladyship had died suddenly in a fit of apoplexy,
which came upon her at the whist-table, and her remains had been
conveyed to the family vault in Dumbartonshire. There was a lesson on
the uncertainty of life! and it is my trust that I found in it a use
of warning; but the continual news and strangers at the toll-bar, the
exact gathering in of the dues, which was not always an easy task, and
your own merry schoolmates, Master Willie, had in a manner shuffled it
out of my mind before the second evening.
It had been a dark, foggy day, and I went early to sleep, there being
few travellers; but in the dead of night, between twelve and one, I
was roused by a thundering summons at the toll-bar. The night was calm
and starless, a mass of heavy clouds covered the sky, broken at times
by gusts of moaning wind from the west, and broad bursts of moonlight.
I threw on my coat, lit my lantern, and hurried out. There stood a
large gig with three persons. They must have been tightly packed in
it, and I never saw a more impatient horse. There was some delay in
getting out the silver, and I had time to see that the two men who
sat, one on each side, were the Highland brothers. There was a woman
between them, in a dingy cloak and bonnet, with a thick black veil.
She neither moved nor spoke, though the toll somehow puzzled the
students. I was determined to have it any way, and one of them saying
something to his companion in Gaelic, reached a half-crown to me. I
knew I had no change, and told him so. 'I'll call in the morning,'
said he; but the horse gave a bound, and the silver flew out of his
fingers. Both the brothers looked down after it. I had a strange
curiosity about their companion, and that instant a gust of wind blew
back the veil, and the moonlight shone clear and full upon the face:
it was the dead visage of Lady Catherine! I saw but one glance of it;
the next moment the heavy veil had fallen. 'Get the silver yourself,
and keep it all,' cried the two men, as I opened for them without a
word: and from that day to this, no one has ever heard the story from
me. I put the half-crown in the poor's-box next Sabbath. But, Master
Willie, after that night I never cared for keeping the toll-bar. The
sound of wheels coming after dark had always a strange effect on me,
and I could never see a gig pass without shivering. So I gave up my
situation, and took to the old trade of gardening again. The pleasant
plants and flowers bring no dark stories to one's mind. But yonder's
the laird: dinner will be ready by this time.
* * * * *
And John was right; for it was ready, with a jovial party to despatch
it. But I never saw my old friend after. He emigrated to Canada with
his managing master in the following spring; and, having at least kept
the real names with enjoined secrecy, it seems at this distance of
time no breach of trust to repeat the toll-keeper's story.