rnish me with the text of what I have mainly to say in the
present one.

"'Mr. Oldbuck,' said the town-clerk (a more important person, who
came in front and ventured to stop the old gentleman), 'the
provost, understanding you were in town, begs on no account that
you'll quit it without seeing him; he wants to speak to ye about
bringing the water frae the Fairwell spring through a part o' your
lands.'

"'What the deuce!--have they nobody's land but mine to cut and
carve on?--I won't consent, tell them.'

"'And the provost,' said the clerk, going on, without noticing the
rebuff, 'and the council, wad be agreeable that you should hae the
auld stanes at Donagild's Chapel, that ye was wussing to hae.'

"'Eh?--what?--Oho! that's another story--Well, well, I'll call upon
the provost, and we'll talk about it.'

"'But ye maun speak your mind on't forthwith, Monkbarns, if ye want
the stanes; for Deacon Harlewalls thinks the carved through-stanes
might be put with advantage on the front of the new council
house--that is, the twa cross-legged figures that the callants used
to ca' Robbin and Bobbin, ane on ilka door-cheek; and the other
stane, that they ca'd Ailie Dailie, abune the door. It will be very
tastefu', the Deacon says, and just in the style of modern Gothic.'

"'Good Lord deliver me from this Gothic generation!' exclaimed the
Antiquary,--'a monument of a knight-templar on each side of a
Grecian porch, and a Madonna on the top of it!--_O crimini!_--Well,
tell the provost I wish to have the stones, and we'll not differ
about the water-course.--It's lucky I happened to come this way
to-day.'

"They parted mutually satisfied; but the wily clerk had most reason
to exult in the dexterity he had displayed, since the whole
proposal of an exchange between the monuments (which the council
had determined to remove as a nuisance, because they encroached
three feet upon the public road) and the privilege of conveying the
water to the burgh, through the estate of Monkbarns, was an idea
which had originated with himself upon the pressure of the moment."

37. In this single page of Scott, will the reader please note the kind
of prophetic instinct with which the great men of every age mark and
forecast its destinies? The water from the Fairwell is the future
Thirlmere