Part 8 (2/2)

While we paced easily forward, by a road which conducted us north-eastward froood qualities of h, like my father, he considered commercial transactions the most important objects of hueneral knowledge On the contrary, with arity of manner,--with a vanity which heit now and then under a thin veil of hues of a learned education, Mr Jarvie's conversation showed tokens of a shrewd, observing, liberal, and, to the extent of its opportunities, a well-iood local antiquary, and entertained , with an account of remarkable events which had forh which we passed And as he ell acquainted with the ancient history of his district, he saith the prospective eye of an enlightened patriot, the buds of es which have only blossomed and ripened within these few years I reh a keen Scotchman, and abundantly zealous for the honour of his country, he was disposed to think liberally of the sister kingdom When Andrew Fairservice (whom, by the way, the Bailie could not abide) chose to i his shoe to the deteriorating influence of the Union, he incurred a severe rebuke from Mr Jarvie

”Whisht, sir!--whisht! it's ill-scraped tongues like yours, that hbourhoods and nations There's naething sae gude on this side o' tiht hae been better, and that ainst it than the Glasgow folk, wi' their rabblings and their risings, and their mobs, as they ca' theude--Let ilka ane roose the ford as they find it--I say let Glasgow flourish!+ whilk is judiciously and elegantly putten round the town's ars in the Clyde, as ever like to gar us flourish like the sugar and tobacco trade? Will onybody tell rumble at the treaty that opened us a road west-awa' yonder?”

Andrew Fairservice was far frou protest, ”That it was an unco change to hae Scotland's laws land; and that, for his share, he wadna for a' the herring-barrels in Glasgow, and a' the tobacco-casks to boot, hae gien up the riding o' the Scots Parliament, or sent awa' our crown, and our sword, and our sceptre, and Mons Meg, to be keepit by thae English pock-puddings in the Tower o' Lunnon

Note G Mons Meg

What wad Sir William Wallace, or auld Davie Lindsay, hae said to the Union, or them thatthe ith these discussions, had becoow ae continuous heaths spread before, behind, and around us, in hopeless barrenness--now level and interspersed with swareen with treacherous verdure, or sable with turf, or, as they call thee heavy ascents, which wanted the dignity and form of hills, while they were still er There were neither trees nor bushes to relieve the eye from the russet livery of absolute sterility The very heath was of that stinted imperfect kind which has little or no flower, and affords the coarsest and , which, as far as e,none, except occasionally a few straggling sheep of a strange diversity of colours, as black, bluish, and orange The sable hue predos The very birds seemed to shun these wastes, and no wonder, since they had an easyfrom them;--at least I only heard theand curlehich my companions denominated the peasweep and whaup

At dinner, however, which we took about noon, at a ood fortune to find that these tiresome screamers of the oodwife told us, that ”the gudeman had been at the hill;” and well for us that he had been so, for we enjoyed the produce of his chasse in the shape of soallantly eked out the ewe- all besides that the house afforded Solass of excellent brandy, crowned our repast; and as our horses had, in the meantime, discussed their corn, we resuour

I had need of all the spirits a good dinner could give, to resist the dejection which crept insensibly on e uncertainty of h which it was leading me Our road continued to be, if possible, more waste and wild than that we had travelled in the forenoon The few miserable hovels that showed some marks of human habitation, were now of still rarer occurrence; and at length, as we began to ascend an uninterrupted swell of moorland, they totally disappeared The only exercise which ination received hen soave us a partial view, to the left, of a large asse to the north and north-west, which promised to include within their recesses a country as wild perhaps, but certainly differing greatly in point of interest, from that whichtravelled The peaks of this screen of uished, as the hills which we had seen on the right were taion, I felt a longing to explore its recesses, though accoer, similar to that which a sailor feels when he wishes for the risks and anie for the insupportable monotony of a protracted cal the names and positions of these remarkable mountains; but it was a subject on which he had no information, or did not choose to be communicative ”They're the Hieland hills--the Hieland hills--Ye'll see and hear eneugh about theain--I downa look at therew It's no for fear--no for fear, but just for grief, for the puir blinded half-starved creatures that inhabit the o' Hielandmen sae near the line I hae ken'd th without he had made his last will and testament--Mattie had ill-will to see rat awee, the sillie tawpie; but it's naebarefit”

I next attempted to lead the discourse on the character and history of the person ere going to visit; but on this topic Mr Jarvie was totally inaccessible, owing perhaps in part to the attendance of Mr Andrew Fairservice, who chose to keep so close in our rear that his ears could not fail to catch every hich was spoken, while his tongue assu in our conversation as often as he saw an opportunity For this he occasionally incurred Mr Jarvie's reproof

”Keep back, sir, as best sets ye,” said the Bailie, as Andrew pressed forward to catch the answer to some question I had asked about Campbell --”ye wad fain ride the fore-horse, an ye wist how--That chield's aye for being out o' the cheese-fat he was moulded in--Now, as for your questions, Mr Osbaldistone, now that chield's out of ear-shot, I'll just tell you it's free to you to speer, and it's free to me to answer, or no--Gude I canna say muckle o' Rob, puir chield; ill I winna say o' hi near his ain country, and there illies ahint every whin-bush, for what I ken--And if ye'll be guided by aun, or e are gaun to do, we'll be the mair likely to speed us in our errand For it's like we may fa' in wi' some o' his unfreends--there are e'en ower mony o' them about--and his bonnet sits even on his brow yet for a' that; but I doubt they'll be upsides wi' Rob at the last--air day or late day, the fox's hide finds aye the flaying knife”

”I will certainly,” I replied, ”be entirely guided by your experience”

”Right, Mr Osbaldistone--right But Iskyte too, for bairns and fules speak at the Cross what they hear at the ingle-side--D'ye hear, you, Andrehat's your name?--Fairservice!”

Andreho at the last rebuff had fallen a good way behind, did not choose to acknowledge the summons

”Andrew, ye scoundrel!” repeated Mr Jarvie; ”here, sir here!”

”Here is for the dog” said Andrew, coes, ye rascal, if ye dinna attend to what I say t'ye--We are gaun into the Hielands a bit”-- ”I judged as muckle,” said Andrew

”Haud your peace, ye knave, and hear what I have to say till ye--We are gaun a bit into the Hielands”-- ”Ye tauld ible Andrew

”I'll break your head,” said the Bailie, rising in wrath, ”if ye dinna haud your tongue”

”A hadden tongue,” replied Andrew, ”makes a slabbered mouth”

It was now necessary I should interfere, which I did by co Andreith an authoritative tone, to be silent at his peril

”I a without a nay-say My puir mother used aye to tell me, Be it better, be it worse, Be ruled by hi as ye like, baith the tane and the tither o' you, for Andrew”

Mr Jarvie took the advantage of his stopping after quoting the above proverb, to give him the requisite instructions ”Now, sir, it's as muckle as your life's worth--that wad be dear o' little siller, to be sure--but it is as muckle as a' our lives are worth, if ye dinna aun to, and whar it is like we ht, men o' a' clans and kindred--Hieland and Lawland--tak up their quarters--And whiles there aretheets upperie nae offence wi' that clavering tongue o' yours, but keep a calht his ain battle”

”Muckle needs to tell me that,” said Andrew, contemptuously, ”as if I had never seen a Hielande them Nae ht wi' them, sauld wi' theht wi' them?” said Mr Jarvie

”Na, na,” answered Andrew, ”I took care o' that: it wad ill hae set me, that a ale herb or flower in braid Scots, let abee in the Latin tongue”

”Then,” said Mr Jarvie, ”as ye wad keep either your tongue in your ht e ye to say nae word, gude or bad, that ye can weel get by, to onybody that may be in the Clachan And ye'll specially understand that ye're no to be bleezing and blasting about yourthat this is Mr Bailie Nicol Jarvie o' the Saut Market, son o' the worthy Deacon Nicol Jarvie, that a' body has heard about; and this is Mr Frank Osbaldistone, son of the reat house of Osbaldistone and Tresham, in the City”

”Eneueh said,” answered Andrew--”eneueh said What need ye think I wad be speaking about your nas o' mair is of ioose; ye ude or bad, that ye can by any possibility help”

”If ye dinna think me fit,” replied Andrew, in a huff, ”to speak like ither folk, gie ow--There's s, as the auldAndrew's perverseness again rising to a point which threatened to occasionto hiht proper, but that in that case I would not pay hiuicians, has weight with the greater part ofany trick of singularity He ”drew in his horns,” to use the Bailie's phrase, on the instant, professed no intention whatever to disoblige, and a resolution to be guided bythus happily restored to our small party, we continued to pursue our journey The road, which had ascended for six or seven English an now to descend for about the sah a country which neither in fertility nor interest could boast any advantage over that which we had passed already, and which afforded no variety, unless when sohland mountain appeared at a distance We continued, however, to ride on without pause and even when night fell and overshadowed the desolate wilds which we traversed, ere, as I understood from Mr Jarvie, still three miles and a bittock distant froht

CHAPTER ELEVENTH

Baron of Bucklivie, May the foul fiend drive ye, And a' to pieces rive ye, For building sic a town, Where there's neither horse meat, Nor man's meat, Nor a chair to sit down Scottish Popular Rhyht was pleasant, and the ht for our journey Under her rays, the ground over which we passed assuht, which discovered the extent of its wasteness The ave it an interest which naturally did not belong to it; and, like the effect of a veil flung over a plain woman, irritated our curiosity on a subject which had in itself nothing gratifying

The descent, however, still continued, turned, winded, left the ot into steeper ravines, which promised soon to lead us to the banks of soe We found ourselves at length on the bank of a strealish rivers than those I had hitherto seen in Scotland It was narrow, deep, still, and silent; although the ilea the lofty mountains which formed its cradle ”That's the Forth,” said the Bailie, with an air of reverence, which I have observed the Scotch usually pay to their distinguished rivers The Clyde, the Tweed, the Forth, the Spey, are usually named by those ell on their banks with a sort of respect and pride, and I have known duels occasioned by any word of disparagement I cannot say I have the least quarrel with this sort of harmless enthusiasm I received my friend's communication with the importance which he seemed to think appertained to it In fact, I was not a little pleased, after so long and dull a journey, to approach a region which proination My faithful squire, Andrew, did not seem to be quite of the same opinion, for he received the solemn information, ”That is the Forth,” with a ”Umph!--an he had said that's the public-house, it wad hae been mair to the purpose”

The Forth, however, as far as the ie, seemed to merit the admiration of those who claimed an interest in its streaular round shape, and clothed with copsewood of hazels, nificent old trees, which, rising above the underwood, exposed their forked and bared branches to the silver moonshi+ne, see If I could trust the tale ofto disbelieve every word of it, he told under his breath, and with an air of soularly forarlanded with such a beautiful variety of ancient trees and thriving copsewood, was held by the neighbourhood to contain, within its unseen caverns, the palaces of the fairies--a race of airy beings, who formed an intermediate class between nant to humanity, were yet to be avoided and feared, on account of their capricious, vindictive, and irritable disposition

Note H Fairy Superstition

”They ca' thenifies, as I understand, udewill And we may e'en as weel ca' the ill o' the laird within his ain bounds” But he added presently after, on seeing one or two lights which twinkled before us, ”It's deceits o' Satan, after a', and I fearna to say it--for we are near the hts in the Clachan of Aberfoil”

I oell pleased at the circumstance to which Mr Jarvie alluded; not so ue at liberty, in his opinion, with all safety to declare his real sentiments with respect to the Daoine Schie, or fairies, as that it promised some hours' repose to ourselves and our horses, of which, after a ride of fifty miles and upwards, both stood in some need

We crossed the infant Forth by an old-fashi+oned stone bridge, very high and very narrow My conductor, however, inforh this deep and important streaeneral pass frohlands to the southward lay by as called the Fords of Frew, at all tiether unfordable Beneath these fords, there was no pass of general resort until so far east as the bridge of Stirling; so that the river of Forth forhlands and Lowlands of Scotland, from its source nearly to the Firth, or inlet of the ocean, in which it terminates The subsequent events which itnessed led me to recall with attention what the shrewdness of Bailie Jarvie suggested in his proverbial expression, that ”Forth bridles the wild Highland, after we crossed the bridge, placed us at the door of the public-house where ere to pass the evening It was a hovel rather worse than better than that in which we had dined; but its little ere lighted up, voices were heard from within, and all intimated a prospect of food and shelter, to which ere by no means indifferent Andreas the first to observe that there was a peeled and placed across the half-open door of the little inn He hung back and advised us not to enter ”For,” said Andrew, ”soh in by there, and dinna want to be disturbed; and the least we'll get, if we gang ramstas, if we dinna coth of a cauld dirk in our wame, whilk is just as likely”

I looked at the Bailie, who acknowledged, in a whisper, ”that the gowk had so, ance in the year”

Meanti half-clad wench or two ca the sound of our horses' feet No one bade us welcome, nor did any one offer to take our horses, frohted; and to our various inquiries, the hopeless response of ”Ha niel Sassenach,” was the only anse could extract The Bailie, however, found (in his experience) a way to ie ye a bawbee,” said he to an urchin of about ten years old, with a fragment of a tattered plaid about him, ”will you understand Sassenach?”

”Ay, ay, that will I,” replied the brat, in very decent English ”Then gang and tell your entlemen come to speak wi' her”