is the very reverse of amber, which, itself a valuable large and sombre library, with no other light than substance, usually includes flies, straws, and other was afforded by the decaying brands on its ponderous trifles; whereas these studies, being themselves very and ample hearth, he would exercise for hours that insignificant and trifling, do nevertheless serve to per- internal sorcery, by which past or imaginary events petuate a great deal of what is rare and valuable in are presented in action, as it were, to the eye of the ancient manners, and to record many curious and muser. Then arose in long and fair array the splenminute facts which could have been preserved and dour of the bridal feast at Waverley-Castle; the tall conveyed through no other medium. If, therefore, and emaciated form of its real lord, as he stood in his Edward Waverley yawned at times over the dry de- pilgrim's weeds, an unnoticed spectator of the festividuction of his line of ancestors, with their various in- ties of his supposed heir and intended bride; the electermarriages, and inwardly deprecated the remorse-trical shock occasioned by the discovery; the springless and protracted accuracy with which the worthy ing of the vassals to arms; the astonishment of the Sir Everard rehearsed the various degrees of propin- bridegroom; the terror and confusion of the bride; quity between the house of Waverley-Honour and the the agony with which Wilibert observed, that her doughty barons, knights, and squires, to whom they heart as well as consent was in these nuptials; the stood allied; if (notwithstanding his obligations to air of dignity, yet of deep feeling, with which he flung the three ermines passant) he sometimes cursed in down the half-drawn sword, and turned away for his heart the jargon of heraldry, its griffins, its mold-ever from the house of his ancestors. Then would warps, its wyverns, and its dragons, with all the bit-he change the scene, and fancy would at his wish terness of Hotspur himself, there were moments represent Aunt Rachel's tragedy. He saw the Lady when these communications interested his fancy and Waverley seated in her bower, her ear strained to rewarded his attention. every sound, her heart throbbing with double agony, The deeds of Wilibert of Waverley in the Holy now listening to the decaying echo of the hoofs of the Land, his long absence and perilous adventures, his king's horse, and when that had died away, hearing supposed death, and his return on the evening when in every breeze that shook the trees of the park, the the betrothed of his heart had wedded the hero who noise of the remote skirmish. A distant sound is had protected her from insult and oppression during heard like the rushing of a swoln stream; it comes his absence; the generosity with which the Crusader nearer, and Edward can plainly distinguish the galrelinquished his claims, and sought in a neighbour- loping of horses, the cries and shouts of men, with ing cloister that peace which passeth not away;*-to straggling pistol-shots between, rolling forwards to these and similar tales he would hearken till his heart the hall. The lady starts up-a terrified menial rushes glowed and his eye glistened. Nor was he less af-in-but why pursue such a description! fected, when his aunt, Mrs. Rachel, narrated the suf- As living in this ideal world became daily more deferings and fortitude of Lady Alice Waverley during lectable to our hero, interruption was disagreeable in the Great Civil War. The benevolent features of the proportion. The extensive domain that surrounded venerable spinster kindled into more majestic expres- the Hall, which, far exceeding the dimensions of a sion, as she told how Charles had, after the field of park, was usually termed Waverley-Chase, had oriWorcester, found a day's refuge at Waverley-Honour, ginally been forest ground, and still, though broken and how, when a troop of cavalry were approaching by extensivs glades, in which the young deer were to search the mansion, Lady Alice dismissed her sporting, retained its pristine and savage character. youngest son with a handful of domestics, charging It was traversed by broad avenues, in many places them to make good with their lives an hour's diver- half grown up with brush-wood, where the beauties sion, that the king might have that space for escape. of former days used to take their stand to see the stag And, God help her," would Mrs. Rachel continue, coursed with greyhounds, or to gain an aim at him fixing her eyes upon the heroine's portrait as she with the cross-bow. In one spot, distinguished by a spoke, "full dearly did she purchase the safety of her moss-grown Gothic monument, which retained the prince with the life of her darling child. They brought name of Queen's Standing, Elizabeth herself was him here a prisoner, mortally wounded; and you may said to have pierced seven bucks with her own artrace the drops of his blood from the great hall door rows. This was a very favourite haunt of Waverley. along the little gallery, and up to the saloon, where At other times, with his gun and his spaniel, which they laid him down to die at his mother's feet. But served as an apology to others, and with a book in his there was comfort exchanged between them; for he pocket, which perhaps served as an apology to himknew, from the glance of his mother's eye, that the self, he used to pursue one of these long avenues, purpose of his desperate defence was attained. Ah! I which, after an ascending sweep of four miles, graduremember," she continued, "I remember well to have ally narrowed into a rude and contracted path through seen one that knew and loved him. Miss Lucy St. the cliffy and woody pass called Mirkwood Dingle, Aubin lived and died a maid for his sake, though one and opened suddenly upon a deep, dark, and small of the most beautiful and wealthy matches in this lake, named, from the same cause, Mirkwood-Mere. country; all the world ran after her, but she wore There stood, in former times, a solitary tower upon a widow's mourning all her life for poor William, for rock almost surrounded by the water, which had acthey were betrothed though not married, and died in quired the name of the Strength of Waverley, because, -I cannot think of the date; but I remember, in in perilous times, it had often been the refuge of the the November of that very year, when she found her- family. There, in the wars of York and Lancaster, self sinking, she desired to be brought to Waverley- the last adherents of the Red Rose who dared to Honour once more, and visited all the places where maintain her cause, carried on a harassing and predashe had been with my grand-uncle, and caused the tory warfare, till the strong-hold was reduced by the carpets to be raised that she might trace the impres- celebrated Richard of Gloucester. Here, too, a party sion of his blood, and if tears could have washed it of cavaliers long maintained themselves under Nigel out, it had not been there now; for there was not a Waverley, elder brother of that William whose fate dry eye in the house. You would have thought, Ed-Aunt Rachel commemorated. Through these scenes ward, that the very trees mourned for her, for their it was that Edward loved to "chew the cud of sweet leaves dropt around her without a gust of wind; and, and bitter fancy," and, like a child among his toys, indeed, she looked like one that would never see them green again." From such legends our hero would steal away to indulge the fancies they excited. In the corner of the culled and arranged, from the splendid yet useless imagery and emblems with which his imagination was stored, visions as brilliant and as fading as those of an evening sky. The effect of this indulgence upon his temper and character will appear in the next chapter. CHAPTER V. There is a family legend to this purpose, belonging to the knightly family of Bradshaigh, the proprietors of Haigh-hall, in Lancashire, where, I have been told, the event is recorded on a painted glass window. The German ballad of the Noble. Moringer turns upon a similar topic. But undoubtedly many such incidents may have taken place, where, the distance being great, and the intercourse infrequent, false reports concerning the fate of the absent Crusaders must have been commonly cirFROM the minuteness with which I have traced culated, and sometimes perhaps rather hastily credited at home. Waverley's pursuits, and the bias which these un CHOICE OF A PROFESSION. avoidably communicated to his imagination, the Aunt Rachel's anxiety, however, lent her address reader may perhaps anticipate, in the following tale, to carry her point. Every representative of their an imitation of the romance of Cervantes. But he house had visited foreign parts, or served his country will do my prudence injustice in the supposition. My in the army, before he settled for life at Waverleyintention is not to follow the steps of that inimitable Honour, and she appealed for the truth of her asserauthor, in describing such total perversion of intellect tion to the genealogical pedigree; an authority which as misconstrues the objects actually presented to the Sir Everard was never known to contradict. In short, senses, but that more common aberration from sound a proposal was made to Mr. Richard Waverley, that judgment, which apprehends occurrences indeed in his son should travel, under the direction of his pretheir reality, but communicates to them a tincture of sent tutor, Mr. Pembroke, with a suitable allowance its own romantic tone and colouring. So far was from the Baronet's liberality. The father himself saw Edward Waverley from expecting general sympathy no objection to this overture; but upon mentioning it with his own feelings, or concluding that the present casually at the table of the minister, the great man state of things was calculated to exhibit the reality of looked grave. The reason was explained in private. those visions in which he loved to indulge, that he The unhappy turn of Sir Everard's politics, the midreaded nothing more than the detection of such sen-nister observed, was such as would render it highly timents as were dictated by his musings. He neither improper that a young gentleman of such hopeful proshad nor wished to have a confidant, with whom to pects should travel on the Continent with a tutor communicate his reveries; and so sensible was he of doubtless of his uncle's choosing, and directing his the ridicule attached to them, that, had he been to course by his instructions. What might Mr. Edward choose between any punishment short of ignominy, Waverley's society be at Paris, what at Rome, where and the necessity of giving a cold and composed ac- all manner of snares were spread by the Pretender count of the ideal world in which he lived the better and his sons-these were points for Mr. Waverley to part of his days, I think he would not have hesitated consider. This he could himself say, that he knew to prefer the former infliction. This secrecy became his Majesty had such a just sense of Mr. Richard Wadoubly precious, as he felt in advancing life the influ- verley's merits, that if his son adopted the army for a ence of the awakening passions. Female forms of few years, a troop, he believed, might be reckoned exquisite grace and beauty began to mingle in his men- upon in one of the dragoon regiments lately returned tal adventures; nor was he long without looking from Flanders. abroad to compare the creatures of his own imagination with the females of actual life. A hint thus conveyed and enforced was not to be neglected with impunity; and Richard Waverley, The list of the beauties who displayed their hebdo- though with great dread of shocking his brother's premadal finery at the parish church of Waverley was judices, deemed he could not avoid accepting the comneither numerous nor select. By far the most passa- mission thus offered him for his son. The truth is, he ble was Miss Sissly, or, as she rather chose to be calculated much, and justly, upon Sir Everard's fondcalled, Miss Cecilia Stubbs, daughter of Squire Stubbs ness for Edward, which made him unlikely to resent at the Grange. I know not whether it was by the any step that he might take in due submission to pa"merest accident in the world," a phrase which, from rental authority. Two letters announced this deterfemale lips, does not always exclude malice prepense, mination to the Baronet and his nephew. The latter or whether it was from a conformity of taste, that barely communicated the fact, and pointed out the Miss Cecilia more than once crossed Edward in his necessary preparations for joining his regiment. To favourite walks through Waverley-Chase. He had his brother, Richard was more diffuse and circuitous. not as yet assumed courage to accost her on these oc- He coincided with him, in the most flattering mancasions; but the meeting was not without its effect. ner, in the propriety of his son's seeing a little more A romantic lover is a strange idolater, who some of the world, and was even humble in expressions of times cares not out of what log he frames the object gratitude for his proposed assistance; was, however, of his adoration; at least, if nature has given that ob- deeply concerned that it was now, unfortunately, not ject any passable proportion of personal charms, he in Edward's power exactly to comply with the plan can easily play the Jeweller and Dervise in the Ori- which had been chalked out by his best friend and ental tale, and supply her richly, out of the stores of benefactor. He himself had thought with pain on his own imagination, with supernatural beauty, and the boy's inactivity, at an age when all his ancestors all the properties of intellectual wealth. had borne arms; even Royalty itself had deigned to But ere the charms of Miss Cecilia Stubbs had inquire whether young Waverley was not now in erected her into a positive goddess, or elevated her at Flanders, at an age when his grandfather was already least to a level with the saint her namesake, Mrs. bleeding for his king in the Great Civil War. This Rachel Waverley gained some intimation which de- was accompanied by an offer of a troop of horse. termined her to prevent the approaching apotheosis. What could he do? There was no time to consult Even the most simple and unsuspicious of the female his brother's inclinations, even if he could have consex have (God bless them!) an instinctive sharpness ceived there might be objections on his part to his of perception in such matters, which sometimes goes nephew's following the glorious career of his predethe length of observing partialities that never existed, cessors. And, in short, that Edward was now (the but rarely misses to detect such as pass actually under intermediate steps of cornet and lieutenant being overtheir observation. Mrs. Rachel applied herself with leapt with great agility) Captain Waverley, of Gardigreat prudence, not to combat, but to elude, the ap- ner's regiment of dragoons, which he must join in proaching danger, and suggested to her brother the their quarters at Dundee in Scotland, in the course of necessity that the heir of his house should see some- a month. thing more of the world than was consistent with Sir Everard Waverley received this intimation with constant residence at Waverley-Honour. a mixture of feelings. At the period of the HanoveSir Everard would not at first listen to a proposal rian succession he had withdrawn from Parliament, which went to separate his nephew from him. Ed- and his conduct, in the memorable year 1715, had not ward was a little bookish, he admitted; but youth, he been altogether unsuspected. There were reports of had always heard, was the season for learning, and, no private musters of tenants and horses in Waverleydoubt, when his rage for letters was abated, and his Chase by moonlight, and of cases of carbines and head fully stocked with knowledge, his nephew would pistols purchased in Holland, and addressed to the take to field-sports and country business. He had Baronet, but intercepted by the vigilance of a riding often, he said, himself regretted that he had not spent officer of the excise, who was afterwards tossed in a some time in study during his youth: he would nei- blanket on a moonless night, by an association of ther have shot nor hunted with less skill, and he might stout yeomen, for his officiousness. Nay, it was even have made the roof of St. Stephen's echo to longer said, that at the arrest of Sir William Wyndham, the orations than were comprised in those zealous Noes, with which, when a member of the House during Godolphin's administration, he encountered every measure of government. • See Hoppner's tale of the Seven Lovers. leader of the Tory party, a letter from Sir Everard was found in the pocket of his night-gown. But there was no overt act which an attainder could be founded on, and government, contented with suppressing the insurrection of 1715, felt it neither prudent nor safe to push their vengeance farther than against those un-1 fortunate gentlemen who actually took up arms. So true, so soft, the mirror gave, Yet, with a stern delight and strange, I saw the spirit-stirring change. As warr'd the wind with wave and wood, And felt my heart more strongly bound, Be each gay form that glided by, While dreams of love and lady's charms Nor did Sir Everard's apprehensions of personal consequences seem to correspond with the reports spread among his Whig neighbours. It was well known that he had supplied with money several of the distressed Northumbrians and Scotchmen, who, after being made prisoners at Preston in Lancashire, were imprisoned in Newgate and the Marshalsea, and it was his solicitor and ordinary counsel who conducted the defence of some of these unfortunate gentlemen at their trial. It was generally supposed, however, that, had ministers possessed any real proof of Sir Everard's accession to the rebellion, he either would not have ventured thus to brave the existing government, or at least would not have done so with impunity. The feelings which then dictated his proceedings, were those of a young man, and at an agitating period. Since that time, Sir Everard's jacobitism had been gradually decaying, like a fire which burns out for want of fuel. His Tory and Highchurch principles were kept up by some occasional exercise at elections and quarter-sessions; but those respecting hereditary right were fallen into a sort of abeyance. Yet it jarred severely upon his feelings, that his nephew should go into the army under the Brunswick dynasty; and the more so, as, independent of his high and conscientious ideas of paternal authority, it was impossible, or at least highly imprudent, to interfere authoritatively to prevent it. This suppressed vexation gave rise to many poohs and pshaws, which were placed to the account of an incipient fit of gout, until, having sent for the Army List, the worthy Baronet consoled himself with reckoning the descendants of the houses of genuine loyalty, Mordaunts, Granvilles, and Stanleys, whose names were to be found in that military record; and, calling up all his feelings of family grandeur and warlike glory, he concluded, with logic something like Falstaff's, that when war was at hand, although it were shame to be on any side but one, it were worse shame to be idle than to be on the worst side, though blacker than usurpation could make it. As for Aunt Rachel, her scheme had not exactly terminated according to her wishes, but she was under the necessity of submitting to circumstances; and her mortification was diverted by the employment she found in fitting out her nephew for the campaign, and greatly consoled by the prospect of beholding him blaze in complete uniform. Edward Waverley himself received with animated and undefined surprise this most unexpected intelligence. It was, as a fine old poem expresses it, "like a fire to heather set," that covers a solitary hill with smoke, and illumines it at the same time with dusky or whether the deep and flaming bars of embroidered fire. His tutor, or, I should say, Mr. Pembroke, for gold, which now fenced his breast, defied the artillery he scarce assumed the name of tutor, picked up about of Cecilia's eyes; but every arrow was launched at Edward's room some fragments of irregular verse, him in vain. which he appeared to have composed under the influence of the agitating feelings occasioned by this sudIt lighted not on little western flower, den page being turned up to him in the book of life. But on bold yeoman, flower of all the west, The doctor, who was a believer in all poetry which Hight Jonas Culbertfield, the steward's son. was composed by his friends, and written out in fair Craving pardon for my heroics, (which I am unable straight lines, with a capital at the beginning of each, in certain cases to resist giving way to,) it is a melancommunicated this treasure to Aunt Rachel, who, choly fact, that my history must here take leave of the with her spectacles dimmed with tears, transferred fair Cecilia, who, like many a daughter of Eve, after them to her common-place book, among choice re- the departure of Edward, and the dissipation of cerceipts for cookery and medicine, favourite texts, and tain idle visions which she had adopted, quietly conportions from High-church divines, and a few songs, tented herself with a pis-aller, and gave her hand, at amatory and jacobitical, which she had carolled in her the distance of six months, to the aforesaid Jonas, son younger days, from whence her nephew's poetical ten- of the Baronet's steward, and heir (no unfertile prostamina were extracted when the volume itself, with pect) to a steward's fortune; besides the snug probaother authentic records of the Waverley family, were exposed to the inspection of the unworthy editor of this memorable history. If they afford the reader no higher amusement, they will serve, at least, better than narrative of any kind, to acquaint him with the wild and irregular spirit of our hero : In sober prose, as perhaps these verses intimate less decidedly, the transient idea of Miss Cecilia Stubbs passed from Captain Waverley's heart amid the turmoil which his new destinies excited. She appeared, indeed, in full splendour in her father's pew upon the Sunday when he attended service for the last time at the old parish church, upon which occasion, at the request of his uncle and Aunt Rachel, he was induced (nothing loth, if the truth must be told) to present himself in full uniform. Late, when the Autumn evening fell There is no better antidote against entertaining too high an opinion of others, than having an excellent one of ourselves at the very same time. Miss Stubbs had indeed summoned up every assistance which art could afford to beauty; but, alas! hoop, patches, frizzled locks, and a new mantua of genuine French silk, were lost upon a young officer of dragoons, who wore, for the first time, his gold-laced hat, jack-boots, and broadsword. I know not whether, like the champion of an old ballad, His heart was all on honour bent, Yet did I mark where Cupid's shaft did light; bility of succeeding to his father's office. All these advantages moved Squire Stubbs, as much as the ruddy brow and manly form of the suitor influenced his daughter, to abate somewhat in the article of their gentry; and so the match was concluded. None seemed more gratified than Aunt Rachel, who had hitherto looked rather askance upon the presumptuous damsel, (as much so, peradventure, as her nature would permit,) but who, on the first appearance of the new-married pair at church, honoured the bride with a smile and a profound courtesy, in presence of the rector, the curate, the clerk, and the whole congregation of the united parishes of Waverley cum Beverley I beg pardon, once and for all, of those readers who ditional groom, if necessary, might be picked up in take up novels merely for amusement, for plaguing Scotland. them so long with old-fashioned politics, and Whig "You will depart with but a small retinue," quoth and Tory, and Hanoverians and Jacobites. The the Baronet, "compared to Sir Hildebrand, when he truth is, I cannot promise them that this story shall mustered before the gate of the Hall a larger body of be intelligible, not to say probable, without it. My horse than your whole regiment consists of. I could plan requires that I should explain the motives on have wished that these twenty young fellows from which its action proceeded; and these motives neces- my estate, who have enlisted in your troop, had been sarily arose from the feelings, prejudices, and parties, to march with you on your journey to Scotland. It of the times. I do not invite my fair readers, whose would have been something, at least; but I am told sex and impatience give them the greatest right to their attendance would be thought unusual in these complain of these circumstances, into a flying cha- days, when every new and foolish fashion is introriot drawn by hippogriffs, or moved by enchantment. duced to break the natural dependence of the people Mine is an humble English post-chaise, drawn upon upon their landlords." four wheels, and keeping his majesty's highway. Sir Everard had done his best to correct this unnaSuch as dislike the vehicle may leave it at the next tural disposition of the times; for he had brightened halt, and wait for the conveyance of Prince Hussein's the chain of attachment between the recruits and tapestry, or Malek the Weaver's flying sentry-box. their young captain, not only by a copious repast of Those who are contented to remain with me will be beef and ale, by way of parting feast, but by such a occasionally exposed to the dulness inseparable from pecuniary donation to each individual, as tended raheavy roads, steep hills, sloughs, and other terrestrial ther to improve the conviviality than the discipline of retardations; but, with tolerable horses and a civil their march. After inspecting the cavalry, Sir Evedriver, (as the advertisements have it,) I engage to get as soon as possible into a more picturesque and romantic country, if my passengers incline to have some patience with me during my first stages.* CHAPTER VI. THE ADIEUS OF WAVERLEY. rard again conducted his nephew to the library, where he produced a letter, carefully folded, surrounded by a little stripe of flox-silk, according to ancient form, and sealed with an accurate impression of the Waverley coat-of-arms. It was addressed, with great formality, "To Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine, Esq. of Bradwardine, at his principal mansion of TullyVeolan, in Perthshire, North Britain. These-By the hands of Captain Edward Waverley, nephew of Sir Everard Waverley, of Waverley-Honour, Bart." Ir was upon the evening of this memorable Sunday The gentleman to whom this enormous greeting that Sir Everard entered the library, where he nar- was addressed, of whom we shall have more to say rowly missed surprising our young hero as he went in the sequel, had been in arms for the exiled family through the guards of the broadsword with the an- of Stewart in the year 1715, and was made prisoner cient weapon of old Sir Hildebrand, which, being at Preston in Lancashire. He was of a very ancient preserved as an heir-loom, usually hung over the family, and somewhat embarrassed fortune; a schochimney in the library, beneath a picture of the lar, according to the scholarship of Scotchmen, that knight and his horse, where the features were almost is, his learning was more diffuse than accurate, and entirely hidden by the knight's profusion of curled he was rather a reader than a grammarian. Of his hair, and the Bucephalus which he bestrode concealed zeal for the classic authors he is said to have given by the voluminous robes of the Bath with which he an uncommon instance. On the road between Preswas decorated. Sir Everard entered, and after a ton and London he made his escape from his guards; glance at the picture and another at his nephew, be- but being afterwards found loitering near the place gan a little speech, which, however, soon dropt into where they had lodged the former night, he was rethe natural simplicity of his common manner, agi- cognised, and again arrested. His companions, and tated upon the present occasion by no common feel- even his escort, were surprised at his infatuation, ing. "Nephew," he said; and then, as mending his and could not help inquiring, why, being once at liphrase, "My dear Edward, it is God's will, and also berty, he had not made the best of his way to a place the will of your father, whom, under God, it is your of safety; to which he replied, that he had intended daty to obey, that you should leave us to take up the to do so, but, in good faith, he had returned to seek profession of arms, in which so many of your ances- his Titus Livius, which he had forgot in the hurry tors have been distinguished. I have made such ar- of his escape. The simplicity of this anecdote rangements as will enable you to take the field as struck the gentleman, who, as we before observed, their descendant, and as the probable heir of the house had managed the defence of some of those unfortunate of Waverley; and, sir, in the field of battle you will persons, at the expense of Sir Everard, and perhaps remember what name you bear. And, Edward, my some others of the party. He was, besides, himself dear boy, remember also that you are the last of that a special admirer of the old Patavinian, and though race, and the only hope of its revival depends upon probably his own zeal might not have carried him you; therefore, as far as duty and honour will per- such extravagant lengths, even to recover the edition mit, avoid danger-I mean unnecessary danger and of Sweynheim and Pannartz, (supposed to be the keep no company with rakes, gamblers, and Whigs, princeps,) he did not the less estimate the devotion of whom, it is to be feared, there are but too many in of the North Briton, and in consequence exerted himthe service into which you are going. Your colonel, self to so much purpose to remove and soften evias I am informed, is an excellent man-for a Presby- dence, detect legal flaws, et cetera, that he accomterian; but you will remember your duty to God, the plished the final discharge and deliverance of Cosmo Church of England, and the"- (this breach ought Comyne Bradwardine from certain very awkward to have been supplied, according to the rubrick, with consequences of a plea before our sovereign lord the the word king; but as, unfortunately, that word con- king in Westminster. veyed a double and embarrassing sense, one meaning The Baron of Bradwardine, for he was generally de facto, and the other de jure, the knight filled up so called in Scotland, (although his intimates, from the blank otherwise)—" the Church of England, and his place of residence, used to denominate him Tullyall constituted authorities." Then, not trusting him- Veolan, or, more familiarly, Tully,) no sooner stood self with any further oratory, he carried his nephew rectus in curia, than he posted down to pay his reto his stables to see the horses destined for his campaign. Two were black, (the regimental colour,) superb chargers both; the other three were stout active hacks, designed for the road, or for his domestics, of whom two were to attend him from the Hall; an ad•These Introductory Chapters have been a good deal censured as tedious and unnecessary. Yet there are circumstances recorded in them, which the author has not been able to persuade himself to retract or cancel. + The attachment to this classic was, it is said, actually displayed, in the manner mentioned in the text, by an unfortunate Jacobite in that unhappy period. He escaped from the jail in which he was confined for a hasty trial and certain condemna tion, and was retaken as he hovered around the place in which he had been imprisoned, for which he could give no better reason than the hope of recovering his favourite Titus Livius. I am sorry to add, that the simplicity of such a character was found to form no apology for his guilt as a rebel, and that he was condemned and executed. spects and make his acknowledgments at Waverley-should be his duty to fortify his dear pupil to resist Honour. A congenial passion for field-sports, and a such unhallowed and pernicious doctrines in church general coincidence in political opinions, cemented and state, as must necessarily be forced at times upon his friendship with Sir Everard, notwithstanding the his unwilling ears. difference of their habits and studies in other parti- Here he produced two immense folded packets, culars; and, having spent several weeks at Waverley- which appeared each to contain a whole ream of Honour, the Baron departed with many expressions closely written manuscript. They had been the laof regard, warmly pressing the Baronet to return his bour of the worthy man's whole life; and never were visit, and partake of the diversion of grouse-shooting labour and zeal more absurdly wasted. He had at upon his moors in Perthshire next season. Shortly one time gone to London, with the intention of giving after, Mr. Bradwardine remitted from Scotland a them to the world, by the medium of a bookseller in sum in reimbursement of expenses incurred in the Little Britain, well known to deal in such commodiKing's High Court of Westminster, which, although ties, and to whom he was instructed to address himnot quite so formidable when reduced to the English self in a particular phrase, and with a certain sign, denomination, had, in its original form of Scotch which, it seems, passed at that time current among pounds, shillings, and pence, such a formidable effect the initiated Jacobites. The moment Mr. Pembroke upon the frame of Duncan Macwheeble, the laird's had uttered the Shibboleth, with the appropriate gesconfidential factor, baron-bailie, and man of resource, ture, the bibliopolist greeted him, notwithstanding that he had a fit of the cholic which lasted for five every disclamation, by the title of doctor, and conveydays, occasioned, he said, solely and utterly by be- ing him into his back shop, after inspecting every coming the unhappy instrument of conveying such a possible and impossible place of concealment, he serious sum of money out of his native country into commenced: "Eh, doctor!-Well-all under the rose the hands of the false English. But patriotism, as it-snug-I keep no holes here even for a Hanoverian is the fairest, so it is often the most suspicious mask rat to hide in. And, what-eh! any good news from of other feelings; and many who knew Bailie Mac- our friends over the water?-and how does the worwheeble, concluded that his professions of regret were thy King of France ?-Or perhaps you are more latenot altogether disinterested, and that he would have ly from Rome? it must be Rome will do it at lastgrudged the moneys paid to the loons at Westminster the church must light its candle at the old lamp.-Eh much less had they not come from Bradwardine es--what, cautious? I like you the better; but no fear." tate, a fund which he considered as more particularly Here Mr. Pembroke with some difficulty stopt a But the Bailie protested he was absolutely torrent of interrogations, eked out with signs, nods, and winks; and having at length convinced the bookseller that he did him too much honour in supposing him an emissary of exiled royalty, he explained his actual business. his own. disinterested "Wo, wo, for Scotland, not a whit for me!" The laird was only rejoiced that his worthy friend, Sir Everard Waverley of Waverley-Honour, was re- The man of books with a much more composed imbursed of the expenditure which he had outlaid on air proceeded to examine the manuscripts. The title account of the house of Bradwardine. It concerned, of the first was, "A Dissent from Dissenters, or the he said, the credit of his own family, and of the king- Comprehension confuted; showing the Impossibility dom of Scotland at large, that these disbursements of any Composition between the Church and Purishould be repaid forthwith, and, delayed, it would tans, Presbyterians, or Sectaries of any Description; be a matter of national reproach. Sir Everard, illustrated from the Scriptures, the Fathers of the accustomed to treat much larger sums with indiffer- Church, and the soundest Controversial Divines." ence, received the remittance of 2941. 13s. 6d., without To this work the bookseller positively demurred. being aware that the payment was an international "Well meant," he said, "and learned, doubtless; but concern, and, indeed, would probably have forgot the the time had gone by. Printed on small-pica it would circumstance altogether, if Bailie Macwheeble had run to eight hundred pages, and could never pay. thought of comforting his cholic by intercepting the Begged therefore to be excused-Loved and honoured subsidy. A yearly intercourse took place, of a short the true church from his soul, and, had it been a letter, and a hamper or a cask or two, between Wa- sermon on the martyrdom, or any twelve-penny verley-Honour and Tully-Veolan, the English exports touch-why I would venture something for the consisting of mighty cheeses and mightier ale, pheas- honour of the cloth-But come, let's see the other. ants, and venison, and the Scottish returns being Right Hereditary righted!'-Ah! there's some sense vested in grouse, white hares, pickled salmon, and in this. Hum-hum-hum-pages so many, paper so usquebaugh. All which were meant, sent, and re- much, letter-press-Ah-I'll tell you, though, doctor, ceived, as pledges of constant friendship and amity you must knock out some of the Latin and Greek between two important houses. It followed as a heavy, doctor, damn'd heavy-(beg your pardon)—and matter of course, that the heir-apparent of Waverley- if you throw in a few grains more pepper I am he Honour could not with propriety visit Scotland with- that never peached my author-I have published for out being furnished with credentials to the Baron of Drake and Charlwood Lawton, and poor Amhurst*Bradwardine. Ah, Caleb! Caleb! Well, it was a shame to let poor When this matter was explained and settled, Mr. Caleb starve, and so many fat rectors and squires Pembroke expressed his wish to take a private and among us. Í gave him a dinner once a-week; but particular leave of his dear pupil. The good man's Lord love you, what's once a-week, when a man does exhortations to Edward to preserve an unblemished not know where to go the other six days?-Well, but life and morals, to hold fast the principles of the I must show the manuscript to little Tom Alibi the Christian religion, and to eschew the profane com- solicitor, who manages all my law affairs-must keep pany of scoffers and latitudinarians, too much abound- on the windy side-the mob were very uncivil the ing in the army, were not unmingled with his politi- last time I mounted in Old Palace Yard—all Whigs cal prejudices. It had pleased Heaven, he said, to and Roundheads, every man of them, Williamites and place Scotland (doubtless for the sins of their ances- Hanover rats.' tors in 1642) in a more deplorable state of darkness than even this unhappy kingdom of England. Here, Nicholas Amhurst, a noted political writer, who conducted at least, although the candlestick of the Church of for many years a paper called the Craftsman, under the assumed England had been in some degree removed from its and seconded, with much ability, the attacks of Pulteney on name of Caleb D'Avers. He was devoted to the Tory interest, place, yet afforded a glimmering light; there was a Sir Robert Walpole. He died in 1742, neglected by his great hierarchy, though schismatical, and fallen from the patrons, and in the most miserable circumstances. principles maintained by those great fathers of the "Amhurst survived the downfall of Walpole's power, and church, Sancroft and his brethren; there was a li-had reason to expect a reward for his labours. If we excuse Bolingbroke, who had only saved the shipwreck of his fortunes, turgy, though wofully perverted in some of the prin- we shall be at a loss to justify Pulteney, who could with case cipal petitions. But in Scotland it was utter darkness; have given this man a considerable income. The utmost of his and, excepting a sorrowful, scattered, and persecuted generosity to Amhurst, that I ever heard of, was a hogshead of claret! He died, it is supposed, of a broken heart and was remnant, the pulpits were abandoned to Presbyterians, buried at the charge of his honest printer, Richard Franklin." and, he feared, to sectaries of every description. It (Lord Chesterfield's Characters Reviewed, p. 42.) |