Rob Roy — Complete

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER FOURTH.

  The Scots are poor, cries surly English pride. True is the charge; nor by themselves denied. Are they not, then, in strictest reason clear, Who wisely come to mend their fortunes here? Churchill.

  There was, in the days of which I write, an old-fashioned custom on theEnglish road, which I suspect is now obsolete, or practised only by thevulgar. Journeys of length being made on horseback, and, of course, bybrief stages, it was usual always to make a halt on the Sunday in sometown where the traveller might attend divine service, and his horse havethe benefit of the day of rest, the institution of which is as humane toour brute labourers as profitable to ourselves. A counterpart to thisdecent practice, and a remnant of old English hospitality, was, that thelandlord of a principal inn laid aside his character of a publican on theseventh day, and invited the guests who chanced to be within his walls totake a part of his family beef and pudding. This invitation was usuallycomplied with by all whose distinguished rank did not induce them tothink compliance a derogation; and the proposal of a bottle of wine afterdinner, to drink the landlord's health, was the only recompense everoffered or accepted.

  I was born a citizen of the world, and my inclination led me into allscenes where my knowledge of mankind could be enlarged; I had, besides,no pretensions to sequester myself on the score of superior dignity, andtherefore seldom failed to accept of the Sunday's hospitality of minehost, whether of the Garter, Lion, or Bear. The honest publican, dilatedinto additional consequence by a sense of his own importance, whilepresiding among the guests on whom it was his ordinary duty to attend,was in himself an entertaining, spectacle; and around his genial orbit,other planets of inferior consequence performed their revolutions. Thewits and humorists, the distinguished worthies of the town or village,the apothecary, the attorney, even the curate himself, did not disdain topartake of this hebdomadal festivity. The guests, assembled fromdifferent quarters, and following different professions, formed, inlanguage, manners, and sentiments, a curious contrast to each other, notindifferent to those who desired to possess a knowledge of mankind in itsvarieties.

  It was on such a day, and such an occasion, that my timorous acquaintanceand I were about to grace the board of the ruddy-faced host of the BlackBear, in the town of Darlington, and bishopric of Durham, when ourlandlord informed us, with a sort of apologetic tone, that there was aScotch gentleman to dine with us.

  "A gentleman!--what sort of a gentleman?" said my companion somewhathastily--his mind, I suppose, running on gentlemen of the pad, as theywere then termed.

  "Why, a Scotch sort of a gentleman, as I said before," returned minehost; "they are all gentle, ye mun know, though they ha' narra shirt toback; but this is a decentish hallion--a canny North Briton as e'ercross'd Berwick Bridge--I trow he's a dealer in cattle."

  "Let us have his company, by all means," answered my companion; and then,turning to me, he gave vent to the tenor of his own reflections. "Irespect the Scotch, sir; I love and honour the nation for their sense ofmorality. Men talk of their filth and their poverty: but commend me tosterling honesty, though clad in rags, as the poet saith. I have beencredibly assured, sir, by men on whom I can depend, that there was neverknown such a thing in Scotland as a highway robbery."

  "That's because they have nothing to lose," said mine host, with thechuckle of a self-applauding wit.

  "No, no, landlord," answered a strong deep voice behind him, "it's e'enbecause your English gaugers and supervisors,* that you have sent downbenorth the Tweed, have taen up the trade of thievery over the heads ofthe native professors."

  * The introduction of gaugers, supervisors, and examiners, was one of thegreat complaints of the Scottish nation, though a natural consequence ofthe Union.

  "Well said, Mr. Campbell," answered the landlord; "I did not thinkthoud'st been sae near us, mon. But thou kens I'm an outspoken Yorkshiretyke. And how go markets in the south?"

  "Even in the ordinar," replied Mr. Campbell; "wise folks buy and sell,and fools are bought and sold."

  "But wise men and fools both eat their dinner," answered our jollyentertainer; "and here a comes--as prime a buttock of beef as e'er hungrymen stuck fork in."

  So saying, he eagerly whetted his knife, assumed his seat of empire atthe head of the board, and loaded the plates of his sundry guests withhis good cheer.

  This was the first time I had heard the Scottish accent, or, indeed, thatI had familiarly met with an individual of the ancient nation by whom itwas spoken. Yet, from an early period, they had occupied and interestedmy imagination. My father, as is well known to you, was of an ancientfamily in Northumberland, from whose seat I was, while eating theaforesaid dinner, not very many miles distant. The quarrel betwixt himand his relatives was such, that he scarcely ever mentioned the race fromwhich he sprung, and held as the most contemptible species of vanity, theweakness which is commonly termed family pride. His ambition was only tobe distinguished as William Osbaldistone, the first, at least one of thefirst, merchants on Change; and to have proved him the linealrepresentative of William the Conqueror would have far less flattered hisvanity than the hum and bustle which his approach was wont to produceamong the bulls, bears, and brokers of Stock-alley. He wished, no doubt,that I should remain in such ignorance of my relatives and descent asmight insure a correspondence between my feelings and his own on thissubject. But his designs, as will happen occasionally to the wisest,were, in some degree at least, counteracted by a being whom his pridewould never have supposed of importance adequate to influence them in anyway. His nurse, an old Northumbrian woman, attached to him from hisinfancy, was the only person connected with his native province for whomhe retained any regard; and when fortune dawned upon him, one of thefirst uses which he made of her favours, was to give Mabel Rickets aplace of residence within his household. After the death of my mother,the care of nursing me during my childish illnesses, and of rendering allthose tender attentions which infancy exacts from female affection,devolved on old Mabel. Interdicted by her master from speaking to him onthe subject of the heaths, glades, and dales of her belovedNorthumberland, she poured herself forth to my infant ear in descriptionsof the scenes of her youth, and long narratives of the events whichtradition declared to have passed amongst them. To these I inclined myear much more seriously than to graver, but less animated instructors.Even yet, methinks I see old Mabel, her head slightly agitated by thepalsy of age, and shaded by a close cap, as white as the drivensnow,--her face wrinkled, but still retaining the healthy tinge which ithad acquired in rural labour--I think I see her look around on the brickwalls and narrow street which presented themselves before our windows,as she concluded with a sigh the favourite old ditty, which I thenpreferred, and--why should I not tell the truth?--which I still preferto all the opera airs ever minted by the capricious brain of an ItalianMus. D.--

  Oh, the oak, the ash, and the bonny ivy tree, They flourish best at home in the North Countrie!

  Now, in the legends of Mabel, the Scottish nation was ever freshlyremembered, with all the embittered declamation of which the narrator wascapable. The inhabitants of the opposite frontier served in hernarratives to fill up the parts which ogres and giants with seven-leaguedboots occupy in the ordinary nursery tales. And how could it beotherwise? Was it not the Black Douglas who slew with his own hand theheir of the Osbaldistone family the day after he took possession of hisestate, surprising him and his vassals while solemnizing a feast suitedto the occasion? Was it not Wat the Devil, who drove all the year-oldhogs off the braes of Lanthorn-side, in the very recent days of mygrandfather's father? And had we not many a trophy, but, according to oldMabel's version of history, far more honourably gained, to mark ourrevenge of these wrongs? Did not Sir Henry Osbaldistone, fifth baron ofthe name, carry off the fair maid of Fairnington, as Achilles did hisChryseis and Briseis of old, and detain her in his fortress against allthe power of her friends, su
pported by the most mighty Scottish chiefs ofwarlike fame? And had not our swords shone foremost at most of thosefields in which England was victorious over her rival? All our familyrenown was acquired--all our family misfortunes were occasioned--by thenorthern wars.

  Warmed by such tales, I looked upon the Scottish people during mychildhood, as a race hostile by nature to the more southern inhabitantsof this realm; and this view of the matter was not much corrected by thelanguage which my father sometimes held with respect to them. He hadengaged in some large speculations concerning oak-woods, the property ofHighland proprietors, and alleged, that he found them much more ready tomake bargains, and extort earnest of the purchase-money, than punctual incomplying on their side with the terms of the engagements. The Scottishmercantile men, whom he was under the necessity of employing as a sort ofmiddle-men on these occasions, were also suspected by my father of havingsecured, by one means or other, more than their own share of the profitwhich ought to have accrued. In short, if Mabel complained of theScottish arms in ancient times, Mr. Osbaldistone inveighed no lessagainst the arts of these modern Sinons; and between them, though withoutany fixed purpose of doing so, they impressed my youthful mind with asincere aversion to the northern inhabitants of Britain, as a peoplebloodthirsty in time of war, treacherous during truce, interested,selfish, avaricious, and tricky in the business of peaceful life, andhaving few good qualities, unless there should be accounted such, aferocity which resembled courage in martial affairs, and a sort of wilycraft which supplied the place of wisdom in the ordinary commerce ofmankind. In justification, or apology, for those who entertained suchprejudices, I must remark, that the Scotch of that period were guilty ofsimilar injustice to the English, whom they branded universally as a raceof purse-proud arrogant epicures. Such seeds of national dislike remainedbetween the two countries, the natural consequences of their existence asseparate and rival states. We have seen recently the breath of ademagogue blow these sparks into a temporary flame, which I sincerelyhope is now extinguished in its own ashes. *

  * This seems to have been written about the time of Wilkes and Liberty.

  It was, then, with an impression of dislike, that I contemplated thefirst Scotchman I chanced to meet in society. There was much about himthat coincided with my previous conceptions. He had the hard features andathletic form said to be peculiar to his country, together with thenational intonation and slow pedantic mode of expression, arising from adesire to avoid peculiarities of idiom or dialect. I could also observethe caution and shrewdness of his country in many of the observationswhich he made, and the answers which he returned. But I was not preparedfor the air of easy self-possession and superiority with which he seemedto predominate over the company into which he was thrown, as it were byaccident. His dress was as coarse as it could be, being still decent;and, at a time when great expense was lavished upon the wardrobe, even ofthe lowest who pretended to the character of gentleman, this indicatedmediocrity of circumstances, if not poverty. His conversation intimatedthat he was engaged in the cattle trade, no very dignified professionalpursuit. And yet, under these disadvantages, he seemed, as a matter ofcourse, to treat the rest of the company with the cool and condescendingpoliteness which implies a real, or imagined, superiority over thosetowards whom it is used. When he gave his opinion on any point, it waswith that easy tone of confidence used by those superior to their societyin rank or information, as if what he said could not be doubted, and wasnot to be questioned. Mine host and his Sunday guests, after an effort ortwo to support their consequence by noise and bold averment, sunkgradually under the authority of Mr. Campbell, who thus fairly possessedhimself of the lead in the conversation. I was tempted, from curiosity,to dispute the ground with him myself, confiding in my knowledge of theworld, extended as it was by my residence abroad, and in the stores withwhich a tolerable education had possessed my mind. In the latter respecthe offered no competition, and it was easy to see that his natural powershad never been cultivated by education. But I found him much betteracquainted than I was myself with the present state of France, thecharacter of the Duke of Orleans, who had just succeeded to the regencyof that kingdom, and that of the statesmen by whom he was surrounded; andhis shrewd, caustic, and somewhat satirical remarks, were those of a manwho had been a close observer of the affairs of that country.

  On the subject of politics, Campbell observed a silence and moderationwhich might arise from caution. The divisions of Whig and Tory then shookEngland to her very centre, and a powerful party, engaged in the Jacobiteinterest, menaced the dynasty of Hanover, which had been just establishedon the throne. Every alehouse resounded with the brawls of contendingpoliticians, and as mine host's politics were of that liberal descriptionwhich quarrelled with no good customer, his hebdomadal visitants wereoften divided in their opinion as irreconcilably as if he had feasted theCommon Council. The curate and the apothecary, with a little man, whomade no boast of his vocation, but who, from the flourish and snap of hisfingers, I believe to have been the barber, strongly espoused the causeof high church and the Stuart line. The excise-man, as in duty bound, andthe attorney, who looked to some petty office under the Crown, togetherwith my fellow-traveller, who seemed to enter keenly into the contest,staunchly supported the cause of King George and the Protestantsuccession. Dire was the screaming--deep the oaths! Each party appealedto Mr. Campbell, anxious, it seemed, to elicit his approbation.

  "You are a Scotchman, sir; a gentleman of your country must stand up forhereditary right," cried one party.

  "You are a Presbyterian," assumed the other class of disputants; "youcannot be a friend to arbitrary power."

  "Gentlemen," said our Scotch oracle, after having gained, with somedifficulty, a moment's pause, "I havena much dubitation that King Georgeweel deserves the predilection of his friends; and if he can haud thegrip he has gotten, why, doubtless, he may made the gauger, here, acommissioner of the revenue, and confer on our friend, Mr. Quitam, thepreferment of solicitor-general; and he may also grant some good deed orreward to this honest gentleman who is sitting upon his portmanteau,which he prefers to a chair: And, questionless, King James is also agrateful person, and when he gets his hand in play, he may, if he be sominded, make this reverend gentleman archprelate of Canterbury, and Dr.Mixit chief physician to his household, and commit his royal beard to thecare of my friend Latherum. But as I doubt mickle whether any of thecompeting sovereigns would give Rob Campbell a tass of aquavitae, if helacked it, I give my vote and interest to Jonathan Brown, our landlord,to be the King and Prince of Skinkers, conditionally that he fetches usanother bottle as good as the last."

  This sally was received with general applause, in which the landlordcordially joined; and when he had given orders for fulfilling thecondition on which his preferment was to depend, he failed not toacquaint them, "that, for as peaceable a gentleman as Mr. Campbell was,he was, moreover, as bold as a lion--seven highwaymen had he defeatedwith his single arm, that beset him as he came from Whitson-Tryste."

  "Thou art deceived, friend Jonathan," said Campbell, interrupting him;"they were but barely two, and two cowardly loons as man could wish tomeet withal."

  "And did you, sir, really," said my fellow-traveller, edging his chair (Ishould have said his portmanteau) nearer to Mr. Campbell, "really andactually beat two highwaymen yourself alone?"

  "In troth did I, sir," replied Campbell; "and I think it nae great thingto make a sang about."

  "Upon my word, sir," replied my acquaintance, "I should be happy to havethe pleasure of your company on my journey--I go northward, sir."

  This piece of gratuitous information concerning the route he proposed tohimself, the first I had heard my companion bestow upon any one, failedto excite the corresponding confidence of the Scotchman.

  "We can scarce travel together," he replied, drily. "You, sir, doubtless,are well mounted, and I for the present travel on foot, or on a Highlandshelty, that does not help me much faster forward."

  So saying, he called for a rec
koning for the wine, and throwing down theprice of the additional bottle which he had himself introduced, rose asif to take leave of us. My companion made up to him, and taking him bythe button, drew him aside into one of the windows. I could not helpoverhearing him pressing something--I supposed his company upon thejourney, which Mr. Campbell seemed to decline.

  "I will pay your charges, sir," said the traveller, in a tone as if hethought the argument should bear down all opposition.

  "It is quite impossible," said Campbell, somewhat contemptuously; "I havebusiness at Rothbury."

  "But I am in no great hurry; I can ride out of the way, and never miss aday or so for good company."

  "Upon my faith, sir," said Campbell, "I cannot render you the service youseem to desiderate. I am," he added, drawing himself up haughtily,"travelling on my own private affairs, and if ye will act by myadvisement, sir, ye will neither unite yourself with an absolute strangeron the road, nor communicate your line of journey to those who are askingye no questions about it." He then extricated his button, not veryceremoniously, from the hold which detained him, and coming up to me asthe company were dispersing, observed, "Your friend, sir, is toocommunicative, considering the nature of his trust."

  "That gentleman," I replied, looking towards the traveller, "is no friendof mine, but an acquaintance whom I picked up on the road. I know neitherhis name nor business, and you seem to be deeper in his confidence than Iam."

  "I only meant," he replied hastily, "that he seems a thought rash inconferring the honour of his company on those who desire it not."

  "The gentleman," replied I, "knows his own affairs best, and I should besorry to constitute myself a judge of them in any respect."

  Mr. Campbell made no farther observation, but merely wished me a goodjourney, and the party dispersed for the evening.

  Next day I parted company with my timid companion, as I left the greatnorthern road to turn more westerly in the direction of OsbaldistoneManor, my uncle's seat. I cannot tell whether he felt relieved orembarrassed by my departure, considering the dubious light in which heseemed to regard me. For my own part, his tremors ceased to amuse me,and, to say the truth, I was heartily glad to get rid of him.