'Ye'll have heard tell o' the old Squire an' aal his goin's on, I'll
be bound? Ay, o' course, but there's one thing nobody kens o', not
even Father Blenkinsop, and that's where the Squire's bones are lyin',
for they never found his body, ye ken.
'Squire Dally was the last o' the fam'ly that had lived in the old
Pele Tower o' Dally from generation to generation, and he was the
wildest o' a wild lot--riders an' reivers in the old times, canny hard
fox-hunters, drinkers, an' gam'lers this century. They were bound to
get through their property soon or late, an' the last Squire, Tom
Dally o' Dally, he says, "I leave my property tiv a South-countryman?
Not I, by Gad!" says he; "why, damme, but I'll cheat him yet," an' sae
he spends hissel' right an' left on any mortal thing he took a fancy
for.
'The Hall--which was an old Pele wi' two wings added, ye ken--an' a
good bit o' the property, had gone before that. The last Squire's
grandfeythor had got shot o' that, the mortgages on it bein' far ower
heavy to keep up; but there was still a fair property left, an' a nice
canny house that had once been a dower-house, an' was now a farm, an'
that was where Squire Tom lived with his fighting-cocks, an' his
hounds, an' his hawks an' aal.
'His missus had died early, ye ken, an' that had been the ruin ov him,
for she was a clivvor woman, wiv a turn o' management--just what ye
would call good hands i' the matter ov a horse; that was her faculty,
an' she was a bonny-featured woman for-bye.
'Ay, she could manage him fine.
'There was a grand scene, 'twas always said, when he brings her home
after their furrin' tower, an' one night, bein' merry wiv his bottle,
he forgets hissel', an' swears at her before company. Up she gets
swiftly, pale, but determined, an' leanin' a wee bit ower the table
she speaks straight at him. "Tom," she says, "you forget yourself; and
until you apologize to me for your rudeness I'll sit no more at table
wi' ye," an' oot she gans frae the dining-room, haughty as the Queen
in Scripture, leavin' the Squire gapin' an' speechless, never havin'
been treated that fashion before.
'There was two or three other men wiv him dinin' that night, an' on
they sat drinkin' steadily, the Squire in a towerin' temper aal the
while, noo damnin' hissel', next cursin' his neighbour, an' backin'
his horses, an' hawks, an' hissel', wi' gun an' rod, against anyone,
or the lot o' them together.
'They tried to soothe him a bit, but the mair they tried the hotter he
got, an' had the Pope hissel' been his visitor that night, Squire Tom
would have d----d him too, an' been glad o' the opportunity. After a
bit mair snarling an' sneerin', an' snappin' he sits quiet for a
while, then he glares round at his guest friends, an' he cries:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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