Guy Mannering, Or, the Astrologer — Volume 01

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER I

  He could not deny that, looking round upon the dreary region, and seeing nothing but bleak fields and naked trees, hills obscured by fogs, and flats covered with inundations, he did for some time suffer melancholy to prevail upon him, and wished himself again safe at home.

  --'Travels of Will. Marvel,' IDLER, No. 49.

  It was in the beginning of the month of November 17--when a youngEnglish gentleman, who had just left the university of Oxford, made useof the liberty afforded him to visit some parts of the north ofEngland; and curiosity extended his tour into the adjacent frontier ofthe sister country. He had visited, on the day that opens our history,some monastic ruins in the county of Dumfries, and spent much of theday in making drawings of them from different points, so that, onmounting his horse to resume his journey, the brief and gloomy twilightof the season had already commenced. His way lay through a wide tractof black moss, extending for miles on each side and before him. Littleeminences arose like islands on its surface, bearing here and therepatches of corn, which even at this season was green, and sometimes ahut or farm-house, shaded by a willow or two and surrounded by largeelder-bushes. These insulated dwellings communicated with each other bywinding passages through the moss, impassable by any but the nativesthemselves. The public road, however, was tolerably well made and safe,so that the prospect of being benighted brought with it no real danger.Still it is uncomfortable to travel alone and in the dark through anunknown country; and there are few ordinary occasions upon which Fancyfrets herself so much as in a situation like that of Mannering.

  As the light grew faint and more faint, and the morass appeared blackerand blacker, our traveller questioned more closely each chancepassenger on his distance from the village of Kippletringan, where heproposed to quarter for the night. His queries were usually answered bya counter-challenge respecting the place from whence he came. Whilesufficient daylight remained to show the dress and appearance of agentleman, these cross interrogatories were usually put in the form ofa case supposed, as, 'Ye'll hae been at the auld abbey o' Halycross,sir? there's mony English gentlemen gang to see that.'--Or, 'Yourhonour will be come frae the house o' Pouderloupat?' But when the voiceof the querist alone was distinguishable, the response usually was,'Where are ye coming frae at sic a time o' night as the like o'this?'--or, 'Ye'll no be o' this country, freend?' The answers, whenobtained, were neither very reconcilable to each other nor accurate inthe information which they afforded. Kippletringan was distant at first'a gey bit'; then the 'gey bit' was more accurately described as'ablins three mile'; then the 'three mile' diminished into 'like a mileand a bittock'; then extended themselves into 'four mile or thereawa';and, lastly, a female voice, having hushed a wailing infant which thespokeswoman carried in her arms, assured Guy Mannering, 'It was a wearylang gate yet to Kippletringan, and unco heavy road for footpassengers.' The poor hack upon which Mannering was mounted wasprobably of opinion that it suited him as ill as the female respondent;for he began to flag very much, answered each application of the spurwith a groan, and stumbled at every stone (and they were not few) whichlay in his road.

  Mannering now grew impatient. He was occasionally betrayed into adeceitful hope that the end of his journey was near by the apparitionof a twinkling light or two; but, as he came up, he was disappointed tofind that the gleams proceeded from some of those farm-houses whichoccasionally ornamented the surface of the extensive bog. At length, tocomplete his perplexity, he arrived at a place where the road dividedinto two. If there had been light to consult the relics of afinger-post which stood there, it would have been of little avail, as,according to the good custom of North Britain, the inscription had beendefaced shortly after its erection. Our adventurer was thereforecompelled, like a knight-errant of old, to trust to the sagacity of hishorse, which, without any demur, chose the left-hand path, and seemedto proceed at a somewhat livelier pace than before, affording thereby ahope that he knew he was drawing near to his quarters for the evening.This hope, however, was not speedily accomplished, and Mannering, whoseimpatience made every furlong seem three, began to think thatKippletringan was actually retreating before him in proportion to hisadvance.

  It was now very cloudy, although the stars from time to time shed atwinkling and uncertain light. Hitherto nothing had broken the silencearound him but the deep cry of the bog-blitter, or bull-of-the-bog, alarge species of bittern, and the sighs of the wind as it passed alongthe dreary morass. To these was now joined the distant roar of theocean, towards which the traveller seemed to be fast approaching. Thiswas no circumstance to make his mind easy. Many of the roads in thatcountry lay along the sea-beach, and were liable to be flooded by thetides, which rise with great height, and advance with extreme rapidity.Others were intersected with creeks and small inlets, which it was onlysafe to pass at particular times of the tide. Neither circumstancewould have suited a dark night, a fatigued horse, and a travellerignorant of his road. Mannering resolved, therefore, definitively tohalt for the night at the first inhabited place, however poor, he mightchance to reach, unless he could procure a guide to this unluckyvillage of Kippletringan.

  A miserable hut gave him an opportunity to execute his purpose. Hefound out the door with no small difficulty, and for some time knockedwithout producing any other answer than a duet between a female and acur-dog, the latter yelping as if he would have barked his heart out,the other screaming in chorus. By degrees the human tones predominated;but the angry bark of the cur being at the instant changed into a howl,it is probable something more than fair strength of lungs hadcontributed to the ascendency.

  'Sorrow be in your thrapple then!' these were the first articulatewords, 'will ye no let me hear what the man wants, wi' your yaffing?'

  'Am I far from Kippletringan, good dame?'

  'Frae Kippletringan!!!' in an exalted tone of wonder, which we can butfaintly express by three points of admiration. 'Ow, man! ye should haehadden eassel to Kippletringan; ye maun gae back as far as the whaap,and baud the whaap till ye come to Ballenloan, and then--'

  'This will never do, good dame! my horse is almost quite knocked up;can you not give me a night's lodgings?'

  'Troth can I no; I am a lone woman, for James he's awa to DrumshourlochFair with the year-aulds, and I daurna for my life open the door to onyo' your gang-there-out sort o' bodies.'

  'But what must I do then, good dame? for I can't sleep here upon theroad all night.'

  'Troth, I kenna, unless ye like to gae down and speer for quarters atthe Place. I'se warrant they'll tak ye in, whether ye be gentle orsemple.'

  'Simple enough, to be wandering here at such a time of night,' thoughtMannering, who was ignorant of the meaning of the phrase; 'but howshall I get to the PLACE, as you call it?'

  'Ye maun baud wessel by the end o' the loan, and take tent o' thejaw-hole.'

  'O, if ye get to eassel and wessel again, I am undone! Is there nobodythat could guide me to this Place? I will pay him handsomely.'

  The word pay operated like magic. 'Jock, ye villain,' exclaimed thevoice from the interior, 'are ye lying routing there, and a younggentleman seeking the way to the Place? Get up, ye fause loon, and showhim the way down the muckle loaning. He'll show you the way, sir, andI'se warrant ye'll be weel put up; for they never turn awa naebody fraethe door; and ye'll be come in the canny moment, I'm thinking, for thelaird's servant--that's no to say his body-servant, but the helperlike--rade express by this e'en to fetch the houdie, and he just staidthe drinking o' twa pints o' tippenny to tell us how my leddy was ta'enwi' her pains.'

  'Perhaps,' said Mannering, 'at such a time a stranger's arrival mightbe inconvenient?'

  'Hout, na, ye needna be blate about that; their house is muckle eneugh,and decking time's aye canty time.'

  By this time Jock had found his way into all the intricacies of atattered doublet and more tattered pair of breeches, and sallied forth,a great white-headed, bare-legged, lubberly boy of twelve years old, soexhibited by the gli
mpse of a rush-light which his half-naked motherheld in such a manner as to get a peep at the stranger without greatlyexposing herself to view in return. Jock moved on westward by the endof the house, leading Mannering's horse by the bridle, and pilotingwith some dexterity along the little path which bordered the formidablejaw-hole, whose vicinity the stranger was made sensible of by means ofmore organs than one. His guide then dragged the weary hack along abroken and stony cart-track, next over a ploughed field, then brokedown a slap, as he called it, in a drystone fence, and lugged theunresisting animal through the breach, about a rood of the simplemasonry giving way in the splutter with which he passed. Finally, heled the way through a wicket into something which had still the air ofan avenue, though many of the trees were felled. The roar of the oceanwas now near and full, and the moon, which began to make herappearance, gleamed on a turreted and apparently a ruined mansion ofconsiderable extent. Mannering fixed his eyes upon it with adisconsolate sensation.

  'Why, my little fellow,' he said, 'this is a ruin, not a house?'

  'Ah, but the lairds lived there langsyne; that's Ellangowan Auld Place.There's a hantle bogles about it; but ye needna be feared, I never sawony mysell, and we're just at the door o' the New Place.'

  Accordingly, leaving the ruins on the right, a few steps brought thetraveller in front of a modern house of moderate size, at which hisguide rapped with great importance. Mannering told his circumstances tothe servant; and the gentleman of the house, who heard his tale fromthe parlour, stepped forward and welcomed the stranger hospitably toEllangowan. The boy, made happy with half-a-crown, was dismissed to hiscottage, the weary horse was conducted to a stall, and Mannering foundhimself in a few minutes seated by a comfortable supper, for which hiscold ride gave him a hearty appetite.