The Ayrshire Legatees; Or, The Pringle FamilyGalt, John
General
The Ayrshire Legatees; Or, The Pringle Family
Galt, John
Scotland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
MY DEAR BELL--I take up my pen with a feeling of disappointment such as I
never felt before. Yesterday was the day appointed for the funeral of
the good old king, and it was agreed that we should go to Windsor, to
pour the tribute of our tears upon the royal hearse. Captain Sabre
promised to go with us, as he is well acquainted with the town, and the
interesting objects around the Castle, so dear to chivalry, and embalmed
by the genius of Shakespeare and many a minor bard, and I promised myself
a day of unclouded felicity--but the captain was ordered to be on
duty,--and the crowd was so rude and riotous, that I had no enjoyment
whatever; but, pining with chagrin at the little respect paid by the
rabble to the virtues of the departed monarch, I would fainly have
retired into some solemn and sequestered grove, and breathed my sorrows
to the listening waste. Nor was the loss of the captain, to explain and
illuminate the different baronial circumstances around the Castle, the
only thing I had to regret in this ever-memorable excursion--my tender
and affectionate mother was so desirous to see everything in the most
particular manner, in order that she might give an account of the funeral
to Nanny Eydent, that she had no mercy either upon me or my father, but
obliged us to go with her to the most difficult and inaccessible places.
How vain was all this meritorious assiduity! for of what avail can the
ceremonies of a royal funeral be to Miss Nanny, at Irvine, where kings
never die, and where, if they did, it is not at all probable that Miss
Nanny would be employed to direct their solemn obsequies? As for my
brother, he was so entranced with his own enthusiasm, that he paid but
little attention to us, which made me the more sensible of the want we
suffered from the absence of Captain Sabre. In a word, my dear Bell,
never did I pass a more unsatisfactory day, and I wish it blotted for
ever from my remembrance. Let it therefore be consigned to the abysses
of oblivion, while I recall the more pleasing incidents that have
happened since I wrote you last.
On Sunday, according to invitation, as I told you, we dined with the
Argents--and were entertained by them in a style at once most splendid,
and on the most easy footing. I shall not attempt to describe the
consumable materials of the table, but call your attention, my dear
friend, to the intellectual portion of the entertainment, a subject much
more congenial to your delicate and refined character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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