54 



RELICS OF POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS, 



no small sliare of his ancestor Rob Roy M'Greggor's gallant spi- 

 rit, mingled with some of the arch gravity peculiar to our English 

 Gascony. The sallies of imagination which might have been ex- 

 pected from such a party, were controlled and harmonized by the 

 presence of a lady from the vale of Dent, in the Gascony already 

 mentioned. This lady, as the Provost's sister-in-law, and a 

 wealthy widow of forty-five, possessed authority enough to regu- 

 late the eccentric humours of her companions, and sufficient at- 

 traction to enliven them. She had the bright black eyes and short 

 pert nose ascribed to the celebrated queen of the ancient Egyptians ; 

 and enough of olive-brown in her cheeks to suit, as she said her- 

 self, the queen of this gay troop of modern gipsies. 



The travellers had hardly begun their depredations on a table 

 covered with kippered salmon and eggs, which strongly announced 

 the vicinity of the poultry yard to the peat-stack, before they 

 were interrupted by that extraordinary clamour of dogs supposed, 

 by an ingenious French tourist, to be a Scotch device for the pur- 

 pose of expediting travellers' horses. The lady ran to the little 

 casement, and the gentlemen, after a few comphments murmured 

 among themselves to the curiosity of the sex, went out to ask 

 questions for their own amusement. The chorus of dogs was pre- 

 sently improved by the sound of two ill-managed bagpipes, a bad 

 violin, and a drum which had been discarded from the Provost's 

 volunteer corps. These headed a procession composed of his 

 waller, mole catcher, grieve or bailiff, and sundry cotters in blue 

 jackets and new shoes ; for the apparel of Gallowaymen differs 

 from their more southern neighbours only in the unfrequency of 

 the latter article, and the picturesque plaid and bonnet are seldom 

 added. Two of the youngest, and probably the soberest of this 

 group, supported a sun-burned youth in apparel which did mar- 

 vellous credit to the glossy blue cloth of the town-tailor. Con- 

 scious of this credit, and of his importance as a bridegroom, the 

 wearer endeavoured to assume an assured air w^hich added admi- 

 rably to the comic effect of the procession. After calling at all 

 the public-houses on their route, and dancing as well as they could 

 at the last, the group reached Park-gate, where the bride resided, 

 and where, according to national couj-tesy, the elected husband 

 came to claim her. The Provost, with that joyous frankness 

 which links the peasantry of Scotland to their masters more pow- 

 erfully than solid benefactions, immediately assumed his part in 



