urne had never
banished from his memory. Here one sad thought suddenly struck the honest
man--the books! no three rooms in Ellangowan were capable to contain
them. While this qualifying reflection was passing through his mind, he
was suddenly summoned by Mannering to assist in calculating some
proportions relating to a large and splendid house which was to be built
on the site of the New Place of Ellangowan, in a style corresponding to
the magnificence of the ruins in its vicinity. Among the various rooms in
the plan, the Dominie observed that one of the largest was entitled THE
LIBRARY; and close beside was a snug, well-proportioned chamber, entitled
Mr. SAMPSON'S APARTMENT. 'Prodigious, prodigious, pro-di-gi-ous!' shouted
the enraptured Dominie.

Mr. Pleydell had left the party for some time; but he returned, according
to promise, during the Christmas recess of the courts. He drove up to
Ellangowan when all the family were abroad but the Colonel, who was busy
with plans of buildings and pleasure-grounds, in which he was well
skilled, and took great delight.

'Ah ha!' said the Counsellor, 'so here you are! Where are the ladies?
where is the fair Julia?'

'Walking out with young Hazlewood, Bertram, and Captain Delaserre, a
friend of his, who is with us just now. They are gone to plan out a
cottage at Derncleugh. Well, have you carried through your law business?'

'With a wet finger,' answered the lawyer; 'got our youngster's special
service retoured into Chancery. We had him served heir before the
macers.'

'Macers? who are they?'

'Why, it is a kind of judicial Saturnalia. You must know, that one of the
requisites to be a macer, or officer in attendance upon our supreme
court, is, that they shall be men of no knowledge.'

'Very well!'

'Now, our Scottish legislature, for the joke's sake I suppose, have
constituted those men of no knowledge into a peculiar court for trying
questions of relationship and descent, such as this business of Bertram,
which often involve the most nice and complicated questions of evidence.'

'The devil they have! I should think that rather inconvenient,' said
Mannering.

'O, we have a practical remedy for the theoretical absurdity. One or two
of the judges act upon such occasions as prompters and assessors to their
own doorkeepers. But you know what Cujacius says, "Multa sunt in moribus
dissentanea, multa sine ratione." [Footnote: The singular inconsistency
hinted at is now, in a