salver of
_quaighs_ introduced, John of Skye, upon some well-known signal,
entered the room, but _en militaire_, without removing his bonnet, and
taking his station behind the landlord, received from his hand the
largest of the Celtic bickers brimful of Glenlivet. The man saluted
the company in his own dialect, tipped off the contents (probably a
quarter of an English pint of raw aqua vitae) at a gulp, wheeled about
as solemnly as if the whole ceremony had been a movement on parade,
and forthwith recommenced his pibrochs and gatherings, which continued
until long after the ladies had left the table, and the autumnal moon
was streaming in upon us so brightly as to dim the candles.

[Footnote 116: I understand that this now celebrated
soup was _extemporized_ by M. Florence on Scott's first
visit to Bowhill after the publication of _Guy
Mannering_. Florence had _served_--and Scott having on
some sporting party made his personal acquaintance, he
used often afterwards to gratify the poet's military
propensities by sending up magnificent representations
in pastry, of citadels taken by the Emperor, etc.]

I had never before seen Scott in such buoyant spirits as he showed
this evening--and I never saw him in {p.279} higher afterwards; and
no wonder, for this was the first time that he, Lord Melville, and
Adam Ferguson, daily companions at the High School of Edinburgh, and
partners in many joyous scenes of the early volunteer period, had met
since the commencement of what I may call the serious part of any of
their lives. The great poet and novelist was receiving them under his
own roof, when his fame was at its _acme_, and his fortune seemed
culminating to about a corresponding height--and the generous
exuberance of his hilarity might have overflowed without moving the
spleen of a Cynic. Old stories of _the Yards_ and _the Cross-causeway_
were relieved by sketches of real warfare, such as none but Ferguson
(or Charles Mathews, had he been a soldier) could ever have given; and
they toasted the memory of _Green-breeks_ and the health of _the Beau_
with equal devotion.

When we rose from table, Scott proposed that we should all ascend his
western turret, to enjoy a moonlight view of the valley. The younger
part of his company were too happy to do so: some of the seniors, who
had tried the thing before, found pretexts