Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — CompleteScott, Walter
History
Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — Complete
Scott, Walter
Historical fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Fiction; Scotland -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction
'Upon the honour of a gentleman,' he said, 'but it makes me young again
to see you here, Mr. Waverley! A worthy scion of the old stock of
Waverley-Honour--spes altera, as Maro hath it--and you have the look of
the old line, Captain Waverley; not so portly yet as my old friend Sir
Everard--mais cela viendra avec le tems, as my Dutch acquaintance,
Baron Kikkitbroeck, said of the sagesse of Madame son epouse. And so ye
have mounted the cockade? Right, right; though I could have wished the
colour different, and so I would ha' deemed might Sir Everard. But no
more of that; I am old, and times are changed. And how does the worthy
knight baronet, and the fair Mrs. Rachel?--Ah, ye laugh, young man! In
troth she was the fair Mrs. Rachel in the year of grace seventeen
hundred and sixteen; but time passes--et singula praedantur anni--that
is most certain. But once again ye are most heartily welcome to my poor
house of Tully-Veolan! Hie to the house, Rose, and see that Alexander
Saunderson looks out the old Chateau Margaux, which I sent from
Bourdeaux to Dundee in the year 1713.'
Rose tripped off demurely enough till she turned the first corner, and
then ran with the speed of a fairy, that she might gain leisure, after
discharging her father's commission, to put her own dress in order, and
produce all her little finery, an occupation for which the approaching
dinner-hour left but limited time.
'We cannot rival the luxuries of your English table, Captain Waverley,
or give you the epulae lautiores of Waverley-Honour. I say epulae
rather than prandium, because the latter phrase is popular: epulae ad
senatum, prandium vero ad populum attinet, says Suetonius Tranquillus.
But I trust ye will applaud my Bourdeaux; c'est des deux oreilles, as
Captain Vinsauf used to say; vinum primae notae, the principal of Saint
Andrews denominated it. And, once more, Captain Waverley, right glad am
I that ye are here to drink the best my cellar can make forthcoming.'
This speech, with the necessary interjectional answers, continued from
the lower alley where they met up to the door of the house, where four
or five servants in old-fashioned liveries, headed by Alexander
Saunderson, the butler, who now bore no token of the sable stains of
the garden, received them in grand COSTUME,
In an old hall hung round with pikes and with bows,
With old bucklers and corslets that had borne many shrewd
blows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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