Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Volume 1
Page 15
CHAPTER IX
MORE OF THE MANOR-HOUSE AND ITS ENVIRONS
After having satisfied his curiosity by gazing around him for afew minutes, Waverley applied himself to the massive knocker ofthe hall-door, the architrave of which bore the date 1594. But noanswer was returned, though the peal resounded through a number ofapartments, and was echoed from the court-yard walls without thehouse, startling the pigeons from the venerable rotunda which theyoccupied, and alarming anew even the distant village curs, whichhad retired to sleep upon their respective dunghills. Tired of thedin which he created, and the unprofitable responses which itexcited, Waverley began to think that he had reached the castle ofOrgoglio as entered by the victorious Prince Arthur,--
When 'gan he loudly through the house to call, But no man cared to answer to his cry; There reign'd a solemn silence over all, Nor voice was heard, nor wight was seen in bower or hall.
Filled almost with expectation of beholding some 'old, old man,with beard as white as snow,' whom he might question concerningthis deserted mansion, our hero turned to a little oaken wicket-door, well clenched with iron-nails, which opened in the court-yard wall at its angle with the house. It was only latched,notwithstanding its fortified appearance, and, when opened,admitted him into the garden, which presented a pleasantscene. [Footnote: Footnote: At Ravelston may be seen such a garden,which the taste of the proprietor, the author's friend andkinsman, Sir Alexander Keith, Knight Mareschal, has judiciouslypreserved. That, as well as the house is, however, of smallerdimensions than the Baron of Bradwardine's mansion and garden arepresumed to have been.] The southern side of the house, clothedwith fruit-trees, and having many evergreens trained upon itswalls, extended its irregular yet venerable front along a terrace,partly paved, partly gravelled, partly bordered with flowers andchoice shrubs. This elevation descended by three several flightsof steps, placed in its centre and at the extremities, into whatmight be called the garden proper, and was fenced along the top bya stone parapet with a heavy balustrade, ornamented from space tospace with huge grotesque figures of animals seated upon theirhaunches, among which the favourite bear was repeatedlyintroduced. Placed in the middle of the terrace between a sashed-door opening from the house and the central flight of steps, ahuge animal of the same species supported on his head and fore-paws a sun-dial of large circumference, inscribed with morediagrams than Edward's mathematics enabled him to decipher.
The garden, which seemed to be kept with great accuracy, aboundedin fruit-trees, and exhibited a profusion of flowers andevergreens, cut into grotesque forms. It was laid out in terraces,which descended rank by rank from the western wall to a largebrook, which had a tranquil and smooth appearance, where it servedas a boundary to the garden; but, near the extremity, leapt intumult over a strong dam, or wear-head, the cause of its temporarytranquillity, and there forming a cascade, was overlooked by anoctangular summer-house, with a gilded bear on the top by way ofvane. After this feat, the brook, assuming its natural rapid andfierce character, escaped from the eye down a deep and woodeddell, from the copse of which arose a massive, but ruinous tower,the former habitation of the Barons of Bradwardine. The margin ofthe brook, opposite to the garden, displayed a narrow meadow, orhaugh, as it was called, which formed a small washing-green; thebank, which retired behind it, was covered by ancient trees.
The scene, though pleasing, was not quite equal to the gardens ofAlcina; yet wanted not the 'due donzellette garrule' of thatenchanted paradise, for upon the green aforesaid two bare-leggeddamsels, each standing in a spacious tub, performed with theirfeet the office of a patent washing-machine. These did not,however, like the maidens of Armida, remain to greet with theirharmony the approaching guest, but, alarmed at the appearance of ahandsome stranger on the opposite side, dropped their garments (Ishould say garment, to be quite correct) over their limbs, whichtheir occupation exposed somewhat too freely, and, with a shrillexclamation of 'Eh, sirs!' uttered with an accent between modestyand coquetry, sprung off like deer in different directions.
Waverley began to despair of gaining entrance into this solitaryand seemingly enchanted mansion, when a man advanced up one of thegarden alleys, where he still retained his station. Trusting thismight be a gardener, or some domestic belonging to the house,Edward descended the steps in order to meet him; but as the figureapproached, and long before he could descry its features, he wasstruck with the oddity of its appearance and gestures. Sometimesthis mister wight held his hands clasped over his head, like anIndian Jogue in the attitude of penance; sometimes he swung themperpendicularly, like a pendulum, on each side; and anon heslapped them swiftly and repeatedly across his breast, like thesubstitute used by a hackney-coachman for his usual floggingexercise, when his cattle are idle upon the stand, in a clearfrosty day. His gait was as singular as his gestures, for at timeshe hopped with great perseverance on the right foot, thenexchanged that supporter to advance in the same manner on theleft, and then putting his feet close together he hopped upon bothat once. His attire also was antiquated and extravagant. Itconsisted in a sort of grey jerkin, with scarlet cuffs and slashedsleeves, showing a scarlet lining; the other parts of the dresscorresponded in colour, not forgetting a pair of scarletstockings, and a scarlet bonnet, proudly surmounted with aturkey's feather. Edward, whom he did not seem to observe, nowperceived confirmation in his features of what the mien andgestures had already announced. It was apparently neither idiocynor insanity which gave that wild, unsettled, irregular expressionto a face which naturally was rather handsome, but something thatresembled a compound of both, where the simplicity of the fool wasmixed with the extravagance of a crazed imagination. He sung withgreat earnestness, and not without some taste, a fragment of anold Scottish ditty:--
False love, and hast thou play'd me this In summer among the flowers? I will repay thee back again In winter among the showers. Unless again, again, my love, Unless you turn again; As you with other maidens rove, I'll smile on other men.
[Footnote: This is a genuine ancient fragment, with somealteration in the two last lines.]
Here lifting up his eyes, which had hitherto been fixed inobserving how his feet kept time to the tune, he beheld Waverley,and instantly doffed his cap, with many grotesque signals ofsurprise, respect, and salutation. Edward, though with little hopeof receiving an answer to any constant question, requested to knowwhether Mr. Bradwardine were at home, or where he could find anyof the domestics. The questioned party replied, and, like thewitch of Thalaba, 'still his speech was song,'--
The Knight's to the mountain His bugle to wind; The Lady's to greenwood Her garland to bind. The bower of Burd Ellen Has moss on the floor, That the step of Lord William Be silent and sure.
This conveyed no information, and Edward, repeating his queries,received a rapid answer, in which, from the haste and peculiarityof the dialect, the word 'butler' was alone intelligible. Waverleythen requested to see the butler; upon which the fellow, with aknowing look and nod of intelligence, made a signal to Edward tofollow, and began to dance and caper down the alley up which hehad made his approaches. A strange guide this, thought Edward, andnot much unlike one of Shakespeare's roynish clowns. I am not overprudent to trust to his pilotage; but wiser men have been led byfools. By this time he reached the bottom of the alley, where,turning short on a little parterre of flowers, shrouded from theeast and north by a close yew hedge, he found an old man at workwithout his coat, whose appearance hovered between that of anupper servant and gardener; his red nose and ruffled shirtbelonging to the former profession; his hale and sunburnt visage,with his green apron, appearing to indicate
Old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden.
The major domo, for such he was, and indisputably the secondofficer of state in the barony (nay, as chief minister of theinterior, superior even to Bailie Macwheeble in his own departmentof the kitchen and cellar)--the major domo laid down his spade,slipped on his coat in haste, and with a wrathful loo
k at Edward'sguide, probably excited by his having introduced a stranger whilehe was engaged in this laborious, and, as he might suppose it,degrading office, requested to know the gentleman's commands.Being informed that he wished to pay his respects to his master,that his name was Waverley, and so forth, the old man'scountenance assumed a great deal of respectful importance. 'Hecould take it upon his conscience to say, his honour would haveexceeding pleasure in seeing him. Would not Mr. Waverley choosesome refreshment after his journey? His honour was with the folkwho were getting doon the dark hag; the twa gardener lads (anemphasis on the word twa) had been ordered to attend him; and hehad been just amusing himself in the mean time with dressing MissRose's flower-bed, that he might be near to receive his honour'sorders, if need were; he was very fond of a garden, but had littletime for such divertisements.'
'He canna get it wrought in abune twa days in the week at no ratewhatever,' said Edward's fantastic conductor.
A grim look from the butler chastised his interference, and hecommanded him, by the name of Davie Gellatley, in a tone whichadmitted no discussion, to look for his honour at the dark hag,and tell him there was a gentleman from the south had arrived atthe Ha'.
'Can this poor fellow deliver a letter?' asked Edward.
'With all fidelity, sir, to any one whom he respects. I wouldhardly trust him with a long message by word of mouth--though heis more knave than fool.'
Waverley delivered his credentials to Mr. Gellatley, who seemed toconfirm the butler's last observation, by twisting his features athim, when he was looking another way, into the resemblance of thegrotesque face on the bole of a German tobacco pipe; after which,with an odd conge to Waverley, he danced off to discharge hiserrand.
'He is an innocent, sir,' said the butler; 'there is one such inalmost every town in the country, but ours is brought far ben.[Footnote: See Note 8.] He used to work a day's turn weelenough; but he helped Miss Rose when she was flemit with the Lairdof Killancureit's new English bull, and since that time we ca' himDavie Do-little; indeed we might ca' him Davie Do-naething, forsince he got that gay clothing, to please his honour and my youngmistress (great folks will have their fancies), he has donenaething but dance up and down about the toun, without doing asingle turn, unless trimming the laird's fishing-wand or buskinghis flies, or may be catching a dish of trouts at an orra time.But here comes Miss Rose, who, I take burden upon me for her, willbe especial glad to see one of the house of Waverley at herfather's mansion of Tully-Veolan.'
But Rose Bradwardine deserves better of her unworthy historianthan to be introduced at the end of a chapter.
In the mean while it may be noticed, that Waverley learned twothings from this colloquy: that in Scotland a single house wascalled a TOWN, and a natural fool an INNOCENT.