Rob Roy — Complete

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER SECOND.

  Where longs to fall yon rifted spire, As weary of the insulting air,-- The poet's thoughts, the warrior's fire, The lover's sighs, are sleeping there. Langhorne.

  At the first Scotch town which we reached, my guide sought out his friendand counsellor, to consult upon the proper and legal means of convertinginto his own lawful property the "bonny creature," which was at presenthis own only by one of those sleight-of-hand arrangements which stillsometimes took place in that once lawless district. I was somewhatdiverted with the dejection of his looks on his return. He had, it seems,been rather too communicative to his confidential friend, the attorney;and learned with great dismay, in return for his unsuspecting frankness,that Mr. Touthope had, during his absence, been appointed clerk to thepeace of the county, and was bound to communicate to justice all suchachievements as that of his friend Mr. Andrew Fairservice. There was anecessity, this alert member of the police stated, for arresting thehorse, and placing him in Bailie Trumbull's stable, therein to remain atlivery, at the rate of twelve shillings (Scotch) per diem, until thequestion of property was duly tried and debated. He even talked as if, instrict and rigorous execution of his duty, he ought to detain honestAndrew himself; but on my guide's most piteously entreating hisforbearance, he not only desisted from this proposal, but made a presentto Andrew of a broken-winded and spavined pony, in order to enable him topursue his journey. It is true, he qualified this act of generosity byexacting from poor Andrew an absolute cession of his right and interestin the gallant palfrey of Thorncliff Osbaldistone--a transference whichMr. Touthope represented as of very little consequence, since hisunfortunate friend, as he facetiously observed, was likely to get nothingof the mare excepting the halter.

  Andrew seemed woeful and disconcerted, as I screwed out of him theseparticulars; for his northern pride was cruelly pinched by beingcompelled to admit that attorneys were attorneys on both sides of theTweed; and that Mr. Clerk Touthope was not a farthing more sterling cointhan Mr. Clerk Jobson.

  "It wadna hae vexed him half sae muckle to hae been cheated out o' whatmight amaist be said to be won with the peril o' his craig, had ithappened amang the Inglishers; but it was an unco thing to see hawks pikeout hawks' e'en, or ae kindly Scot cheat anither. But nae doubt thingswere strangely changed in his country sin' the sad and sorrowfu' Union;"an event to which Andrew referred every symptom of depravity ordegeneracy which he remarked among his countrymen, more especially theinflammation of reckonings, the diminished size of pint-stoups, and othergrievances, which he pointed out to me during our journey.

  For my own part, I held myself, as things had turned out, acquitted ofall charge of the mare, and wrote to my uncle the circumstances underwhich she was carried into Scotland, concluding with informing him thatshe was in the hands of justice, and her worthy representatives, BailieTrumbull and Mr. Clerk Touthope, to whom I referred him for fartherparticulars. Whether the property returned to the Northumbrianfox-hunter, or continued to bear the person of the Scottish attorney, itis unnecessary for me at present to say.

  We now pursued our journey to the north-westward, at a rate much slowerthan that at which we had achieved our nocturnal retreat from England.One chain of barren and uninteresting hills succeeded another, until themore fertile vale of Clyde opened upon us; and, with such despatch as wemight, we gained the town, or, as my guide pertinaciously termed it, thecity, of Glasgow. Of late years, I understand, it has fully deserved thename, which, by a sort of political second sight, my guide assigned toit. An extensive and increasing trade with the West Indies and Americancolonies, has, if I am rightly informed, laid the foundation of wealthand prosperity, which, if carefully strengthened and built upon, may oneday support an immense fabric of commercial prosperity; but in theearlier time of which I speak, the dawn of this splendour had not arisen.The Union had, indeed, opened to Scotland the trade of the Englishcolonies; but, betwixt want of capital, and the national jealousy of theEnglish, the merchants of Scotland were as yet excluded, in a greatmeasure, from the exercise of the privileges which that memorable treatyconferred on them. Glasgow lay on the wrong side of the island forparticipating in the east country or continental trade, by which thetrifling commerce as yet possessed by Scotland chiefly supported itself.Yet, though she then gave small promise of the commercial eminence towhich, I am informed, she seems now likely one day to attain, Glasgow, asthe principal central town of the western district of Scotland, was aplace of considerable rank and importance. The broad and brimming Clyde,which flows so near its walls, gave the means of an inland navigation ofsome importance. Not only the fertile plains in its immediateneighbourhood, but the districts of Ayr and Dumfries regarded Glasgow astheir capital, to which they transmitted their produce, and received inreturn such necessaries and luxuries as their consumption required.

  The dusky mountains of the western Highlands often sent forth wildertribes to frequent the marts of St. Mungo's favourite city. Hordes ofwild shaggy, dwarfish cattle and ponies, conducted by Highlanders, aswild, as shaggy, and sometimes as dwarfish, as the animals they had incharge, often traversed the streets of Glasgow. Strangers gazed withsurprise on the antique and fantastic dress, and listened to the unknownand dissonant sounds of their language, while the mountaineers, armed,even while engaged in this peaceful occupation, with musket and pistol,sword, dagger, and target, stared with astonishment on the articles ofluxury of which they knew not the use, and with an avidity which seemedsomewhat alarming on the articles which they knew and valued. It isalways with unwillingness that the Highlander quits his deserts, and atthis early period it was like tearing a pine from its rock, to plant himelsewhere. Yet even then the mountain glens were over-peopled, althoughthinned occasionally by famine or by the sword, and many of theirinhabitants strayed down to Glasgow--there formed settlements--theresought and found employment, although different, indeed, from that oftheir native hills. This supply of a hardy and useful population was ofconsequence to the prosperity of the place, furnished the means ofcarrying on the few manufactures which the town already boasted, and laidthe foundation of its future prosperity.

  The exterior of the city corresponded with these promising circumstances.The principal street was broad and important, decorated with publicbuildings, of an architecture rather striking than correct in point oftaste, and running between rows of tall houses, built of stone, thefronts of which were occasionally richly ornamented with mason-work--acircumstance which gave the street an imposing air of dignity andgrandeur, of which most English towns are in some measure deprived, bythe slight, insubstantial, and perishable quality and appearance of thebricks with which they are constructed.

  In the western metropolis of Scotland, my guide and I arrived on aSaturday evening, too late to entertain thoughts of business of any kind.We alighted at the door of a jolly hostler-wife, as Andrew calledher,--the Ostelere of old father Chaucer,--by whom we were civillyreceived.

  On the following morning the bells pealed from every steeple, announcingthe sanctity of the day. Notwithstanding, however, what I had heard ofthe severity with which the Sabbath is observed in Scotland, my firstimpulse, not unnaturally, was to seek out Owen; but on inquiry I foundthat my attempt would be in vain, "until kirk time was ower." Not onlydid my landlady and guide jointly assure me that "there wadna be a livingsoul either in the counting-house or dwelling-house of Messrs. MacVittie,MacFin, and Company," to which Owen's letter referred me, but, moreover,"far less would I find any of the partners there. They were serious men,and wad be where a' gude Christians ought to be at sic a time, and thatwas in the Barony Laigh Kirk."*

  * [The Laigh Kirk or Crypt of the Cathedral of Glasgow served for more *than two centuries as the church of the Barony Parish, and, for a time,was * converted into a burial-place. In the restorations of this grandbuilding * the crypt was cleared out, and is now admired as one of therichest specimens * of Early E
nglish architecture existing in Scotland.]

  Andrew Fairservice, whose disgust at the law of his country hadfortunately not extended itself to the other learned professions of hisnative land, now sung forth the praises of the preacher who was toperform the duty, to which my hostess replied with many loud amens. Theresult was, that I determined to go to this popular place of worship, asmuch with the purpose of learning, if possible, whether Owen had arrivedin Glasgow, as with any great expectation of edification. My hopes wereexalted by the assurance, that if Mr. Ephraim MacVittie (worthy man) werein the land of life, he would surely honour the Barony Kirk that day withhis presence; and if he chanced to have a stranger within his gates,doubtless he would bring him to the duty along with him. This probabilitydetermined my motions, and under the escort of my faithful Andrew, I setforth for the Barony Kirk.

  On this occasion, however, I had little need of his guidance; for thecrowd, which forced its way up a steep and rough-paved street, to hearthe most popular preacher in the west of Scotland, would of itself haveswept me along with it. On attaining the summit of the hill, we turned tothe left, and a large pair of folding doors admitted us, amongst others,into the open and extensive burying-place which surrounds the Minster orCathedral Church of Glasgow. The pile is of a gloomy and massive, ratherthan of an elegant, style of Gothic architecture; but its peculiarcharacter is so strongly preserved, and so well suited with theaccompaniments that surround it, that the impression of the first viewwas awful and solemn in the extreme. I was indeed so much struck, that Iresisted for a few minutes all Andrew's efforts to drag me into theinterior of the building, so deeply was I engaged in surveying itsoutward character.

  Situated in a populous and considerable town, this ancient and massivepile has the appearance of the most sequestered solitude. High wallsdivide it from the buildings of the city on one side; on the other it isbounded by a ravine, at the bottom of which, and invisible to the eye,murmurs a wandering rivulet, adding, by its gentle noise, to the imposingsolemnity of the scene. On the opposite side of the ravine rises a steepbank, covered with fir-trees closely planted, whose dusky shade extendsitself over the cemetery with an appropriate and gloomy effect. Thechurchyard itself had a peculiar character; for though in realityextensive, it is small in proportion to the number of respectableinhabitants who are interred within it, and whose graves are almost allcovered with tombstones. There is therefore no room for the long rankgrass, which, in most cases, partially clothes the surface of thoseretreats where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are atrest. The broad flat monumental stones are placed so close to each other,that the precincts appear to be flagged with them, and, though roofedonly by the heavens, resemble the floor of one of our old Englishchurches, where the pavement is covered with sepulchral inscriptions. Thecontents of these sad records of mortality, the vain sorrows which theypreserve, the stern lesson which they teach of the nothingness ofhumanity, the extent of ground which they so closely cover, and theiruniform and melancholy tenor, reminded me of the roll of the prophet,which was "written within and without, and there was written thereinlamentations and mourning and woe."

  The Cathedral itself corresponds in impressive majesty with theseaccompaniments. We feel that its appearance is heavy, yet that the effectproduced would be destroyed were it lighter or more ornamental. It is theonly metropolitan church in Scotland, excepting, as I am informed, theCathedral of Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, which remained uninjured at theReformation; and Andrew Fairservice, who saw with great pride the effectwhich it produced upon my mind, thus accounted for its preservation--"Ah!it's a brave kirk--nane o' yere whig-maleeries and curliewurlies andopensteek hems about it--a' solid, weel-jointed mason-wark, that willstand as lang as the warld, keep hands and gunpowther aff it. It hadamaist a douncome lang syne at the Reformation, when they pu'd doun thekirks of St. Andrews and Perth, and thereawa', to cleanse them o' Papery,and idolatry, and image worship, and surplices, and sic like rags o' themuckle hure that sitteth on seven hills, as if ane wasna braid eneugh forher auld hinder end. Sae the commons o' Renfrew, and o' the Barony, andthe Gorbals and a' about, they behoved to come into Glasgow no fairmorning, to try their hand on purging the High Kirk o' Popishnick-nackets. But the townsmen o' Glasgow, they were feared their auldedifice might slip the girths in gaun through siccan rough physic, saethey rang the common bell, and assembled the train-bands wi' took o'drum. By good luck, the worthy James Rabat was Dean o' Guild thatyear--(and a gude mason he was himself, made him the keener to keep upthe auld bigging)--and the trades assembled, and offered downrightbattle to the commons, rather than their kirk should coup the crans asothers had done elsewhere. It wasna for luve o' Paperie--na, na!--nanecould ever say that o' the trades o' Glasgow--Sae they sune came to anagreement to take a' the idolatrous statues of sants (sorrow be on them)out o' their neuks--and sae the bits o' stane idols were broken inpieces by Scripture warrant, and flung into the Molendinar burn, and theauld kirk stood as crouse as a cat when the flaes are kaimed aff her,and a' body was alike pleased. And I hae heard wise folk say, that ifthe same had been done in ilka kirk in Scotland, the Reform wad just haebeen as pure as it is e'en now, and we wad hae mair Christian-likekirks; for I hae been sae lang in England, that naething will drived outo' my head, that the dog-kennel at Osbaldistone Hall is better than monya house o' God in Scotland."

  Thus saying, Andrew led the way into the place of worship.