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, wainscoted 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 lawsuit, 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.He was a confessor in her cause after the year 1715, when a Whiggish mob destroyed his meeting-house, tore his surplice, and plundered his dwelling-house of four silver spoons, intromitting also with his mart and his meal-ark, and with two barrels, one of single, and one of double ale, besides three bottles of brandy.<*> My Baron-Bailie and doer, Mr.
* After the Revolution of 1688, and on some occasions when the spirit * of the Presbyterians had been unusually animated against their opponents, * the Episcopal clergymen, who were chiefly non-jurors, were exposed to be * mobbed, as we should now say, or _rabbled,_ as the phrase then went, to * expiate their political heresies.But notwithstanding that the Presbyterians * had the persecution in Charles II.and his brother's time, to exasperate them, * there was little mischief done beyond the kind of petty violence mentioned * in the text.
Duncan Macwheeble, is the fourth on our list.There is a question, owing to the incertitude of ancient orthography, whether he belongs to the clan of Wheedle or of Quibble, but both have produced persons eminent in the law.''---As such he described them by person and name, They entered, and dinner was served as they came.
