240 DECENTLY AND IN ORDER 



Londoners clave to the roofs of their mouths, millions 

 upon millions of gallons were rolling through our 

 thousand glens, driving an amber stain across the azure 

 of the firth. 



There had been a death in the ' big hoose ' not one 

 of the laird's own blood, but the nearest thing to it 

 the death of the aged housekeeper, who had seen three 

 lairds in succession. By no social alchemy can such 

 ties be woven as linked this venerable dame to the 

 house she served for half a century, any more than 

 flesh and blood can be built in a mould by nice com- 

 mixture of phosphates, nitrates, cellular tissue, and what 

 not. Served yes, her sphere was service, but of that 

 kind which acquires a strong blend of authority. The 

 accident of primogeniture caused a boy born in such a 

 house to become its master ; but he would as soon have 

 thought of cutting down his 'dule tree' the im- 

 memorial ash standing beside the courtyard, symbol of 

 the obsolete baronial right of pit and gallows as of 

 discharging the stately regent of ' the room.' Though 

 not specified in his charters, she was as much part of 

 his inheritance as hill and dale, pasture and cornland, 

 woods and plains, moors, marshes, turbaries, water- 

 mills, multures and minerals, hawkings, huntings, and 

 fishings, liberties and easements, parts and pendicles 

 tarn non nominata quam nominata, tarn sub terra 

 quam supra terram, tarn procul quam prope. Surer 

 fixity of tenure it were not in the power of the legis- 

 lature to bestow ; but just as the 'dule tree' may yield 

 to the gale some winter's night, so the old housekeeper 



