KOBE RICK, THE FAIR-HAIRED 1 , 519 



whilst, in the mean time, Granny Mac Sillergrip had swooned away, 

 and fallen into hysterics, because the man had dared to attempt 

 drowning himself in cloth of her spinning. To Duncan's exclama- 

 tions he owed the name of " the Gentleman/' which it must be 

 admitted he ever afterwards proved in quality, though not in degree, 

 endeavouring, in his humble calling, to render the readiest service of 

 any in Starvitout, and affording the best and cheapest " entertainment 

 both for man and horse" in that renowned borough. 



At nightfall Roderick proceeded to the spot appointed for reliev- 

 ing poor Tom, whom he found not at his post, but in his stead, two 

 whose presence had never for a moment entered into his mental cal- 

 culation, namely, his aunty Tibby, accompanied by Jenny Glendin- 

 ning, the heiress of a mud cottage and a yellow cow. On mutual 

 explanation it turned out that Tom had met them on his return to 

 the mountains, where he meant for the night to bury again his slum- 

 bers on the cold ground, when he intended to take the rout of the 

 Spital of Glenshee, bidding everlasting adieu to a degenerated 

 country, devoid of hospitality, liberty, and breeches. It also appeared 

 that the tidings of Roderick's misadventures had been revealed to his 

 aunt by the mysterious visitations of a dream, as well as the suspicions 

 of her waking fancy, with the vagrant rumours which had crossed 

 the moorlands and found her in her distant Highland glen. These 

 had induced her to proceed forward to render the only gift she had 

 to bestow, her consolation, which Roderick accepted with the utmost 

 cordiality and gratitude. The party proceeded onward to the inn of 

 Duncan the Gentleman. Duncan himself was descried in a little 

 while pacing before his door in readiness to receive them, surrounded 

 by his whole household of man-servant, maid-servant, pigs, poultry, 

 mastiff, cat and kittens, mountain-goats, and every other creature 

 which was his. His ample sign-board bore, as usual in country 

 hostels, a more conspicuous figure than any other part of the mansion, 

 armed with the common emblems of bacchanalian warfare, punch- 

 bowl, dram-glasses, bottles, jugs, and decanters, in the middle of 

 which a huge mountaineer revelled in pictorial pride, in the true pa- 

 radise of every Highlander's desire, having "plenty of whiskey, 

 enough of snishen, and a rams-horn for a mull." The party were 

 shown into a little sanded parlour, which aforetime had been the 

 sanctuary of Simon Lord Lovat, when the troubles of his times had 

 obliged him to enter into voluntary exile, where the renowned 

 Macphersori partook his stirrup-cup, in wending forth to Morven of 

 the many storms and latterly the chosen haunt of every good fellow 

 for many a mile around. Although the spider and time had netted 

 and encrusted its walls with cobwebs, and the erugo of years, yet 

 there was seen around that which bespoke the former existence of 

 better days, not to mention the more modern decorations of Duncan 

 the Gentleman, comprising " The Prodigal Son" " Solomon in all 

 his Glory" " The Drowning of Pharaoh and his Host in the Red 

 Sea" and the "Tailor riding to Brentford" which formed the 

 leading graces in Duncan's unique cabinet. To defeat witchcraft and 

 dispel glamour, boughs of rowan-tree or mountain-ash were arranged 

 around the walls in tasteful variety a sprig adorning the diadem of 



