TE FOR SALE.

"By order of the Lords of Council and Session, will be exposed to sale
in the New Sessions House of Edinburgh, on Wednesday, the 25th November,
18--, all and whole the lands and barony of Glentanner, now called
Castle Treddles, lying in the Middle Ward of Clydesdale, and shire of
Lanark, with the teinds, parsonage and vicarage, fishings in the Clyde,
woods, mosses, moors, and pasturages," etc., etc.

The advertisement went on to set forth the advantages of the soil,
situation, natural beauties, and capabilities of improvement, not
forgetting its being a freehold estate, with the particular polypus
capacity of being sliced up into two, three, or, with a little
assistance, four freehold qualifications, and a hint that the county
was likely to be eagerly contested between two great families. The upset
price at which "the said lands and barony and others" were to be exposed
was thirty years' purchase of the proven rental, which was about a
fourth more than the property had fetched at the last sale. This, which
was mentioned, I suppose, to show the improvable character of the land,
would have given another some pain. But let me speak truth of myself in
good as in evil--it pained not me. I was only angry that Fairscribe,
who knew something generally of the extent of my funds, should have
tantalized me by sending me information that my family property was in
the market, since he must have known that the price was far out of my
reach.

But a letter dropped from the parcel on the floor, which attracted my
eye, and explained the riddle. A client of Mr. Fairscribe's, a moneyed
man, thought of buying Glentanner, merely as an investment of money--it
was even unlikely he would ever see it; and so the price of the whole
being some thousand pounds beyond what cash he had on hand, this
accommodating Dives would gladly take a partner in the sale for any
detached farm, and would make no objection to its including the most
desirable part of the estate in point of beauty, provided the price was
made adequate. Mr. Fairscribe would take care I was not imposed on in
the matter, and said in his card he believed, if I really wished to make
such a purchase, I had better go out and look at the premises, advising
me, at the same time, to keep a strict incognito--an advice somewhat
superfluous, since I am naturally of a retired and reserved disposition.

CHAPTER III. MR. CROFTANGRY, INTER ALIA, REVISITS GLENTANNER.

Then sin