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
With much ceremony, and still more real kindness, the Baron,
without stopping in any intermediate apartment, conducted his
guest through several into the great dining parlour, wainscotted
with black oak, and hung round with the pictures of his ancestry,
where a table was set forth in form for six persons, and an old-
fashioned beaufet displayed all the ancient and massive plate of
the Bradwardine family. A bell was now heard at the head of the
avenue; for an old man, who acted as porter upon gala days, had
caught the alarm given by Waverley's arrival, and, repairing to
his post, announced the arrival of other guests.
These, as the Baron assured his young friend, were very estimable
persons. 'There was the young Laird of Balmawhapple, a Falconer by
surname, of the house of Glenfarquhar, given right much to field-
sports--gaudet equis et canibus--but a very discreet young
gentleman. Then there was the Laird of Killancureit, who had
devoted his leisure UNTILL tillage and agriculture, and boasted
himself to be possessed of a bull of matchless merit, brought from
the county of Devon (the Damnonia of the Romans, if we can trust
Robert of Cirencester). He is, as ye may well suppose from such a
tendency, but of yeoman extraction--servabit odorem testa diu--and
I believe, between ourselves, his grandsire was from the wrong
side of the Border--one Bullsegg, who came hither as a steward, or
bailiff, or ground-officer, or something in that department, to
the last Girnigo of Killancureit, who died of an atrophy. After
his master's death, sir,--ye would hardly believe such a scandal,
--but this Bullsegg, being portly and comely of aspect,
intermarried with the lady dowager, who was young and amorous, and
possessed himself of the estate, which devolved on this unhappy
woman by a settlement of her umwhile husband, in direct
contravention of an unrecorded taillie, and to the prejudice of
the disponer's own flesh and blood, in the person of his natural
heir and seventh cousin, Girnigo of Tipperhewit, whose family was
so reduced by the ensuing law-suit, that his representative is now
serving as a private gentleman-sentinel in the Highland Black
Watch. But this gentleman, Mr. Bullsegg of Killancureit that now
is, has good blood in his veins by the mother and grandmother, who
were both of the family of Pickletillim, and he is well liked and
looked upon, and knows his own place. And God forbid, Captain
Waverley, that we of irreproachable lineage should exult over him,
when it may be, that in the eighth, ninth, or tenth generation,
his progeny may rank, in a manner, with the old gentry of the
country. Rank and ancestry, sir, should be the last words in the
mouths of us of unblemished race--vix ea nostra voco, as Naso
saith. There is, besides, a clergyman of the true (though
suffering) Episcopal church of Scotland. [Footnote: See Note 9.]
He was a confessor in her cause after the year 1715, when a
Whiggish mob destroyed his meeting-house, tore his surplice, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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