[5] We are indebted for this and the two succeeding anecdotes to the “Scotch Haggis,” a curious collection of the pure native wit of our country, published in 1822. [6] The country people call a dispensation of the greater Sacrament “_an occasion_.” It is also scoffingly termed “_the Holy Fair_.” In Edinburgh it is called “_the Preachings_.” But, it must be observed, these phrases are only applied in reference to the outward circumstances, and not to the holy ceremony itself. [7] We are indebted for this and the succeeding illustration to the late Alexander Campbell’s edition of Macintosh’s Gaelic Proverbs. [8] Charles, fifth Earl of Traquair, was implicated in the proceedings of the year 1745, though he did not appear openly. See the evidence of Secretary Murray on the trial of Lord Lovat, _Scots Magazine_ for 1747, p. 105. [9] Note 7 to Canto III. CHAPTER II. =Guy Mannering.= CURIOUS PARTICULARS OF SIR ROBERT MAXWELL OF ORCHARDSTON. (_Groundwork of the Novel._) “Sir Robert Maxwell of Orchardston, in the county of Galloway, was the descendant of an ancient Roman Catholic family of title in the south of Scotland. He was the only child of a religious and bigoted recluse, who sent him, while yet very young, to a college of Jesuits in Flanders, for education—the paternal estate being, in the meantime, wholly managed by the boy’s uncle, the brother of the devotee, to whom he resigned the guardianship of the property, in order that he might employ the remainder of his days exclusively in acts of devotion. In the family of Orchardston, as, indeed, in most great families of that day, the younger branches were but ill provided for, and looked to the inheritor of the family estate alone for the means of supporting their rank in society: the liberal professions and the employments of trade were still considered somewhat dishonourable; and the unfortunate junior, nursed with inflated ideas of consequence and rank, was doomed in after-life to exercise the servility and experience the mortification of an humble dependant. In this case, the culpable negligence of the father had transferred the entire management of a large estate to his younger brother, who was so delighted in the possession, that he resolved to retain it, to the exclusion of the rightful heir. He consequently circulated a report that the boy was dead; and on the death of the old baronet, which took place about this period, he laid claim to the title and estate. In the meantime, our young hero was suffering (very reluctantly) the severe discipline of the Jesuits’ college, his expenses being defrayed by occasional supplies sent him by his uncle, which were represented to him as the bounties of the college—a story which he could not discredit, as he had been placed there at an age too young to know distinctly either who he was or whence he came. He was intelligent and docile; and was deemed of sufficient capacity to become hereafter one of their own learned