highly polished manners, related in the
same degree to both Gala and the Sheriff; Sir Alexander Don, the
member for Roxburghshire, whose elegant social qualities have been
alluded to in the preceding chapter; and Dr. Scott of Darnlee, a
modest and intelligent gentleman, who having realized a fortune in the
East India Company's medical service, had settled within two or three
miles of Abbotsford, and, though no longer practising his profession,
had kindly employed all the resources of his skill in the endeavor to
counteract his neighbor's recent liability to attacks of cramp. Our
host and one or two others appeared, as was in those days a common
fashion with country gentlemen, in the lieutenancy uniform of their
county. How fourteen or fifteen people contrived to be seated in the
then dining-room of Abbotsford I know not--for it seemed quite full
enough when it contained only eight or ten; but so it was--nor, as Sir
Harry Macdougal's fat valet, warned by former experience, did not join
the train of attendants, was there any perceptible difficulty in the
detail of the arrangements. Everything about the dinner was, as
the phrase runs, in excellent style; and in particular the _potage
a la Meg Merrilies_, announced as an attempt to imitate a device
of the Duke of Buccleuch's celebrated cook,--by name Monsieur
Florence,--seemed, to those at least who were better acquainted with
the Kaim of Derncleugh than with the _cuisine_ of Bowhill,[116] a very
laudable specimen of the art. {p.278} The champagne circulated
nimbly--and I never was present at a gayer dinner. It had advanced a
little beyond the soup when it received an accompaniment which would
not, perhaps, have improved the satisfaction of southern guests, had
any such been present. A tall and stalwart bagpiper, in complete
Highland costume, appeared pacing to and fro on the green before the
house, and the window being open, it seemed as if he might as well
have been straining his lungs within the parlor. At a pause of his
strenuous performance, Scott took occasion to explain that _John of
Skye_ was a recent acquisition to the rising hamlet of Abbotstown;
that the man was a capital hedger and ditcher, and only figured with
the pipe and philabeg on high occasions in the after-part of the day;
"but indeed," he added, laughing, "I fear John will soon be
discovering that the hook and mattock are unfavorable to his chanter
hand." When the cloth was drawn, and the never-failing