Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — Volume 1Scott, Walter
History
Waverley; or, 'Tis sixty years since — Volume 1
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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