Guy Mannering, Vol. I

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'Hazlewood was conveyed home, that is, to Woodbourne, in safety; I
trust his wound will prove in no respect dangerous, though he
suffers much. But to Brown the consequences must be most
disastrous. He is already the object of my father's resentment,
and he has now incurred danger from the law of the country, as
well as from the clamorous vengeance of the father of Hazlewood,
who threatens to move heaven and earth against the author of his
son's wound. How will he be able to shroud himself from the
vindictive activity of the pursuit? how to defend himself, if
taken, against the severity of laws which, I am told, may even
affect his life? and how can I find means to warn him of his
danger? Then poor Lucy's ill-concealed grief, occasioned by her
lover's wound, is another source of distress to me, and everything
round me appears to bear witness against that indiscretion which
has occasioned this calamity.

'For two days I was very ill indeed. The news that Hazlewood was
recovering, and that the person who had shot him was nowhere to be
traced, only that for certain he was one of the leaders of the
gang of smugglers, gave me some comfort. The suspicion and pursuit
being directed towards those people must naturally facilitate
Brown's escape, and I trust has ere this ensured it. But patrols
of horse and foot traverse the country in all directions, and I am
tortured by a thousand confused and unauthenticated rumours of
arrests and discoveries.

'Meanwhile my greatest source of comfort is the generous candour
of Hazlewood, who persists in declaring that, with whatever
intentions the person by whom he was wounded approached our party,
he is convinced the gun went off in the struggle by accident, and
that the injury he received was undesigned. The groom, on the
other hand, maintains that the piece was wrenched out of
Hazlewood's hands and deliberately pointed at his body, and Lucy
inclines to the same opinion; I do not suspect them of wilful
exaggeration, yet such is the fallacy of human testimony, for the
unhappy shot was most unquestionably discharged unintentionally.
Perhaps it would be the best way to confide the whole secret to
Hazlewood; but he is very young, and I feel the utmost repugnance
to communicate to him my folly. I once thought of disclosing the
mystery to Lucy, and began by asking what she recollected of the
person and features of the man whom we had so unfortunately met;
but she ran out into such a horrid description of a hedgeruffian,
that I was deprived of all courage and disposition to own my
attachment to one of such appearance as she attributed to him. I
must say Miss Bertram is strangely biassed by her prepossessions,
for there are few handsomer men than poor Brown. I had not seen
him for a long time, and even in his strange and sudden apparition
on this unhappy occasion, and under every disadvantage, his form
seems to me, on reflection, improved in grace and his features in
expressive dignity. Shall we ever meet again? Who can answer that
question? Write to me kindly, my dearest Matilda; but when did you
otherwise? Yet, again, write to me soon, and write to me kindly. I
am not in a situation to profit by advice or reproof, nor have I
my usual spirits to parry them by raillery. I feel the terrors of
a child who has in heedless sport put in motion some powerful
piece of machinery; and, while he beholds wheels revolving, chains
clashing, cylinders rolling around him, is equally astonished at
the tremendous powers which his weak agency has called into
action, and terrified for the consequences which he is compelled
to await, without the possibility of averting them.

'I must not omit to say that my father is very kind and
affectionate. The alarm which I have received forms a sufficient
apology for my nervous complaints. My hopes are, that Brown has
made his escape into the sister kingdom of England, or perhaps to
Ireland or the Isle of Man. In either case he may await the issue
of Hazlewood's wound with safety and with patience, for the
communication of these countries with Scotland, for the purpose of
justice, is not (thank Heaven) of an intimate nature. The
consequences of his being apprehended would be terrible at this
moment. I endeavour to strengthen my mind by arguing against the
possibility of such a calamity. Alas! how soon have sorrows and
fears, real as well as severe, followed the uniform and tranquil
state of existence at which so lately I was disposed to repine!
But I will not oppress you any longer with my complaints. Adieu,
my dearest Matilda! 'JULIA MANNERING.'

NOTES

NOTE 1, p. 25

The groaning malt mentioned in the text was the ale brewed for the
purpose of being drunk after the lady or goodwife's safe delivery.
The ken-no has a more ancient source, and perhaps the custom may
be derived from the secret rites of the Bona Dea. A large and rich
cheese was made by the women of the family, with great affectation
of secrecy, for the refreshment of the gossips who were to attend
at the 'canny' minute. This was the ken-no, so called because its
existence was secret (that is, presumed to be so) from all the
males of the family, but especially from the husband and master.
He was accordingly expected to conduct himself as if he knew of no
such preparation, to act as if desirous to press the female guests
to refreshments, and to seem surprised at their obstinate refusal.
But the instant his back was turned the ken-no was produced; and
after all had eaten their fill, with a proper accompaniment of the
groaning malt, the remainder was divided among the gossips, each
carrying a large portion home with the same affectation of great
secrecy.

NOTE 2, p. 198

It is fitting to explain to the reader the locality described in
chapter xxii. There is, or rather I should say there WAS, a little
inn called Mumps's Hall, that is, being interpreted, Beggar's
Hotel, near to Gilsland, which had not then attained its present
fame as a Spa. It was a hedge alehouse, where the Border farmers
of either country often stopped to refresh themselves and their
nags, in their way to and from the fairs and trysts in Cumberland,
and especially those who came from or went to Scotland, through a
barren and lonely district, without either road or pathway,
emphatically called the Waste of Bewcastle. At the period when the
adventures described in the novel are supposed to have taken
place, there were many instances of attacks by freebooters on
those who travelled through this wild district, and Mumps's Ha'
had a bad reputation for harbouring the banditti who committed
such depredations.

An old and sturdy yeoman belonging to the Scottish side, by
surname an Armstrong or Elliot, but well known by his soubriquet
of Fighting Charlie of Liddesdale, and still remembered for the
courage he displayed in the frequent frays which took place on the
Border fifty or sixty years since, had the following adventure in
the Waste, which suggested the idea of the scene in the text:--

Charlie had been at Stagshawbank Fair, had sold his sheep or
cattle, or whatever he had brought to market, and was on his
return to Liddesdale. There were then no country banks where cash
could be deposited and bills received instead, which greatly
encouraged robbery in that wild country, as the objects of plunder
were usually fraught with gold. The robbers had spies in the fair,
by means of whom they generally knew whose purse was best stocked,
and who took a lonely and desolate road homeward,--those, in
short, who were best worth robbing and likely to be most easily
robbed.

All this Charlie knew full well; but he had a pair of excellent
pistols and a dauntless heart. He stopped at Mumps's Ha',
notwithstanding the evil character of the place. His horse was
accommodated where it might have the necessary rest and feed of
corn; and Charlie himself, a dashing fellow, grew gracious with
the landlady, a buxom quean, who used all the influence in her
power to induce him to stop all night. The landlord was from home,
she said, and it was ill passing the Waste, as twilight must needs
descend on him before he gained the Scottish side, which was
reckoned the safest. But Fighting Charlie, though he suffered
himself to be detained later than was prudent, did not account
Mumps's Ha' a safe place to quarter in during the night. He tore
himself away, therefore, from Meg's good fare and kind words, and
mounted his nag, having first examined his pistols, and tried by
the ramrod whether the charge remained in them.

He proceeded a mile or two at a round trot, when, as the Waste
stretched black before him, apprehensions began to awaken in his
mind, partly arising out of Meg's unusual kindness, which he could
not help thinking had rather a suspicious appearance. He therefore
resolved to reload his pistols, lest the powder had become damp;
but what was his surprise, when he drew the charge, to find
neither powder nor ball, while each barrel had been carefully
filled with TOW, up to the space which the loading had occupied!
and, the priming of the weapons being left untouched, nothing but
actually drawing and examining the charge could have discovered
the inefficiency of his arms till the fatal minute arrived when
their services were required. Charlie bestowed a hearty Liddesdale
curse on his landlady, and reloaded his pistols with care and
accuracy, having now no doubt that he was to be waylaid and
assaulted. He was not far engaged in the Waste, which was then,
and is now, traversed only by such routes as are described in the
text, when two or three fellows, disguised and variously armed,
started from a moss-hag, while by a glance behind him (for,
marching, as the Spaniard says, with his beard on his shoulder, he
reconnoitred in every direction) Charlie instantly saw retreat was
impossible, as other two stout men appeared behind him at some
distance. The Borderer lost not a moment in taking his resolution,
and boldly trotted against his enemies in front, who called loudly
on him to stand and deliver; Charlie spurred on, and presented his
pistol. 'D--n your pistol,' said the foremost robber, whom Charlie
to his dying day protested he believed to have been the landlord
of Mumps's Ha', 'd--n your pistol! I care not a curse for it.' 'Ay,
lad,' said the deep voice of Fighting Charlie, 'but the TOW'S out
now.' He had no occasion to utter another word; the rogues,
surprised at finding a man of redoubted courage well armed,
instead of being defenceless, took to the moss in every direction,
and he passed on his way without farther molestation.

The author has heard this story told by persons who received it
from Fighting Charlie himself; he has also heard that Mumps's Ha'
was afterwards the scene of some other atrocious villainy, for
which the people of the house suffered. But these are all tales of
at least half a century old, and the Waste has been for many years
as safe as any place in the kingdom.

NOTE 3, p. 213

The author may here remark that the character of Dandie Dinmont
was drawn from no individual. A dozen, at least, of stout
Liddesdale yeomen with whom he has been acquainted, and whose
hospitality he has shared in his rambles through that wild
country, at a time when it was totally inaccessible save in the
manner described in the text, might lay claim to be the prototype
of the rough, but faithful, hospitable, and generous farmer. But
one circumstance occasioned the name to be fixed upon a most
respectable individual of this class, now no more. Mr. James
Davidson of Hindlee, a tenant of Lord Douglas, besides the points
of blunt honesty, personal strength, and hardihood designed to be
expressed in the character of Dandie Dinmont, had the humour of
naming a celebrated race of terriers which he possessed by the
generic names of Mustard and Pepper (according as their colour was
yellow or greyish-black), without any other individual distinction
except as according to the nomenclature in the text. Mr. Davidson
resided at Hindlee, a wild farm on the very edge of the Teviotdale
mountains, and bordering close on Liddesdale, where the rivers and
brooks divide as they take their course to the Eastern and Western
seas. His passion for the chase in all its forms, but especially
for fox-hunting, as followed in the fashion described in chapter
xxv, in conducting which he was skilful beyond most men in the
South Highlands, was the distinguishing point in his character.

When the tale on which these comments are written became rather
popular, the name of Dandie Dinmont was generally given to him,
which Mr. Davidson received with great good-humour, only saying,
while he distinguished the author by the name applied to him in
the country, where his own is so common--'that the Sheriff had not
written about him mair than about other folk, but only about his
dogs.' An English lady of high rank and fashion, being desirous to
possess a brace of the celebrated Mustard and Pepper terriers,
expressed her wishes in a letter which was literally addressed to
Dandie Dinmont, under which very general direction it reached Mr.
Davidson, who was justly proud of the application, and failed not
to comply with a request which did him and his favourite
attendants so much honour.

I trust I shall not be considered as offending the memory of a
kind and worthy man, if I mention a little trait of character
which occurred in Mr. Davidson's last illness. I use the words of
the excellent clergyman who attended him, who gave the account to
a reverend gentleman of the same persuasion:--

'I read to Mr. Davidson the very suitable and interesting truths
you addressed to him. He listened to them with great seriousness,
and has uniformly displayed a deep concern about his soul's
salvation. He died on the first Sabbath of the year (1820); an
apoplectic stroke deprived him in an instant of all sensation, but
happily his brother was at his bedside, for he had detained him
from the meeting-house that day to be near him, although he felt
himself not much worse than usual. So you have got the last little
Mustard that the hand of Dandie Dinmont bestowed.

'His ruling passion was strong even on the eve of death. Mr.
Baillie's fox-hounds had started a fox opposite to his window a
few weeks ago, and as soon as he heard the sound of the dogs his
eyes glistened; he insisted on getting out of bed, and with much
difficulty got to the window and there enjoyed the fun, as he
called it. When I came down to ask for him, he said, "he had seen
Reynard, but had not seen his death. If it had been the will of
Providence," he added, "I would have liked to have been after him;
but I am glad that I got to the window, and am thankful for what I
saw, for it has done me a great deal of good." Notwithstanding
these eccentricities (adds the sensible and liberal clergyman), I
sincerely hope and believe he has gone to a better world, and
better company and enjoyments.'

If some part of this little narrative may excite a smile, it is
one which is consistent with the most perfect respect for the
simple-minded invalid and his kind and judicious religious
instructor, who, we hope, will not be displeased with our giving,
we trust, a correct edition of an anecdote which has been pretty
generally circulated. The race of Pepper and Mustard are in the
highest estimation at this day, not only for vermin-killing, but
for intelligence and fidelity. Those who, like the author, possess
a brace of them, consider them as very desirable companions.

NOTE 4, p. 232

The cleek here intimated is the iron hook, or hooks, depending
from the chimney of a Scottish cottage, on which the pot is
suspended when boiling. The same appendage is often called the
crook. The salmon is usually dried by hanging it up, after being
split and rubbed with salt, in the smoke of the turf fire above
the cleeks, where it is said to 'reist,' that preparation being so
termed. The salmon thus preserved is eaten as a delicacy, under
the name of kipper, a luxury to which Dr. Redgill has given his
sanction as an ingredient of the Scottish breakfast.--See the
excellent novel entitled MARRIAGE.

NOTE 5, p. 234

The distinction of individuals by nicknames when they possess no
property is still common on the Border, and indeed necessary, from
the number of persons having the same name. In the small village
of Lustruther, in Roxburghshire, there dwelt, in the memory of
man, four inhabitants called Andrew, or Dandie, Oliver. They were
distinguished as Dandie Eassil-gate, Dandie Wassilgate, Dandie
Thumbie, and Dandie Dumbie. The two first had their names from
living eastward and westward in the street of the village; the
third from something peculiar in the conformation of his thumb;
the fourth from his taciturn habits.

It is told as a well-known jest, that a beggar woman, repulsed
from door to door as she solicited quarters through a village of
Annandale, asked, in her despair, if there were no Christians in
the place. To which the hearers, concluding that she inquired for
some persons so surnamed, answered, 'Na, na, there are nae
Christians here; we are a' Johnstones and Jardines.'

NOTE 6, p. 244

The mysterious rites in which Meg Merrilies is described as
engaging belong to her character as a queen of her race. All know
that gipsies in every country claim acquaintance with the gift of
fortune-telling; but, as is often the case, they are liable to the
superstitions of which they avail themselves in others. The
correspondent of Blackwood, quoted in the Introduction to this
Tale, gives us some information on the subject of their credulity.

'I have ever understood,' he says, speaking of the Yetholm
gipsies,' that they are extremely superstitious, carefully
noticing the formation of the clouds, the flight of particular
birds, and the soughing of the winds, before attempting any
enterprise. They have been known for several successive days to
turn back with their loaded carts, asses, and children, upon
meeting with persons whom they considered of unlucky aspect; nor
do they ever proceed on their summer peregrinations without some
propitious omen of their fortunate return. They also burn the
clothes of their dead, not so much from any apprehension of
infection being communicated by them, as the conviction that the
very circumstance of wearing them would shorten the days of their
living. They likewise carefully watch the corpse by night and day
till the time of interment, and conceive that "the deil tinkles at
the lyke-wake" of those who felt in their dead-thraw the agonies
and terrors of remorse.'

These notions are not peculiar to the gipsies; but, having been
once generally entertained among the Scottish common people, are
now only found among those who are the most rude in their habits
and most devoid of instruction. The popular idea, that the
protracted struggle between life and death is painfully prolonged
by keeping the door of the apartment shut, was received as certain
by the superstitious eld of Scotland. But neither was it to be
thrown wide open. To leave the door ajar was the plan adopted by
the old crones who understood the mysteries of deathbeds and
lykewakes. In that case there was room for the imprisoned
spirit to escape; and yet an obstacle, we have been assured, was
offered to the entrance of any frightful form which might
otherwise intrude itself. The threshold of a habitation was in
some sort a sacred limit, and the subject of much superstition. A
bride, even to this day, is always lifted over it, a rule derived
apparently from the Romans.

GLOSSARY

'A, he, I.
a', all.
abide, endure.
ablins, aiblins, perhaps.
abune, above.
ae, one.
aff, off.
afore, before.
a-guisarding, masquerading.
ahint, behind.
aik, an oak.
ails, hinders, prevents.
ain, own.
amang, among.
an, if.
ance, once.
ane, one.
anent, about.
aneuch, enough.
auld, old.
auld threep, a superstitious notion.
avise, advise, deliberate.
awa', away.
aweel, well.
awfu', awful.
awmous, alms.
aye, ever.

bairn, a child.
baith, both.
ballant, a ballad.
banes, bones.
bannock, a flat round or oval cake.
barken, stiffen, dry to a crust.
barrow-trams, the shafts of a hand barrow.
baulks, ridges.
berling, a galley.
bield, a shelter, a house.
biggit, built.
billie, a brother, a companion.
bing out and tour, go out and watch.
binna, be not.
birk, a birch tree.
bit, a little.
bittle, beat with a bat.
bittock, a little bit.
Black Peter, a portmanteau.
blate, shy, bashful.
blawn, blown.
blear, obscure.
blude, bluid, blood.
blunker, a cloth printer.
blythe, glad.
boddle, a copper coin worth one third of a penny.
bogle, a goblin, a spectre.
bonnet, a cap.
bonnie, bonny, pretty, fine.
bonspiel, a match game at curling.
bottle-head, beetle-head, stupid fellow.
bow, a boll.
bowster, a bolster.
braw, fine.
brigg, a bridge.
brock, a badger, a dirty fellow.
brod, a church collection plate.
buckkar, a smuggling lugger.
bully-huff, a bully, a braggart.
burn, a brook.
bye, besides.

ca', call.
cake-house, a house of entertainment.
callant, a stripling.
cam, came.
canny, lucky, cautious.
cantle, a fragment.
canty, cheerful.
capons, castrated cocks.
carle, a churl, an old man.
cast, lot, fate.
chapping-stick, a stick to strike with.
cheerer, spirits and hot water.
chield, a young man.
chumlay, a chimney.
clanjamfray, rabble.
clashes, lies, scandal.
claught, clutched, caught.
clecking, hatching.
clodded, threw heavily.
close, a lane, a narrow passage.
clour, a heavy blow.
cloyed a dud, stolen a rag.
collieshangie, an uproar.
come o' will, a child of love.
cottar, cottage.
cramp-ring, shackles, fetters.
cranking, creaking.
craw, crow.
creel, a basket.
cuddy, an ass.
cusp, an entrance to a house.
cusser, a courser, a stallion.

daft, mad, foolish.
darkmans, night.
daurna, dare not.
day-dawing, dawn.
dead-thraw, death-agony.
death-ruckle, death-rattle.
deil-be-lickit, nothing, naught.
dike, a wall, a ditch.
dinging, slamming.
dingle, a dell, a hollow.
dizzen, a dozen.
doo, a dove.
dooket, dukit, a dovecot.
doun, down.
douse the glim, put out the light.
dow, list, wish.
drap, a drop.
drumming, driving.
dub, a puddle.
duds, clothes.

eassel, provincial for eastward.
een, eyes.
endlang, along.
eneugh, enough.
evening, putting on the same level.

faem, foam.
fair-strae, natural.
fambles, hands.
fash, trouble.
fauld, a fold.
fause, false.
feared, afraid.
fearsome, frightful.
feck, a quantity.
feckless, feeble.
fell, a skin.
fernseed, gather the, make invisible.
fie, mad, foredoomed.
fient a bit, never a bit
fient a haet, not the least.
fire-raising, setting fire.
firlot, a quarter of a boll.
fit, a foot.
flesh, fleesh, a fleece.
flick, cut.
flit, remove.
fond, glad to.
forbears, ancestors.
forbye, besides.
foumart, a polecat.
fowk, people.
frae, from.
frummagem'd, throttled, hanged.
fu', full.
fule-body, a foolish person.

gae, go.
gaed, went.
gane, gone.
gang, go.
gang-there-out, wandering.
gangrel, vagrant.
gar, make.
gate, gait, way.
gaun, going.
gay, gey, very.
gelding, a castrated horse.
gentle or semple, high born or common people.
gie, give.
gliffing, a surprise, an instant.
glower, glare.
gowan, a field daisy.
gowd, gold.
gowpen, a double handful.
greet, weep.
grieve, an overseer.
grippet, grasped, caught.
grunds, grounds.
gude, guid, good.
gudeman, master of a house.
gyre-carlings, witches.

ha', hall.
hadden, held, gone.
hae, have.
hafflin, half grown.
haick, hack.
haill, whole.
hallan, a partition.
hame, home.
hank, a skein of yarn.
hansel, a present.
hantle, a quantity.
haud, hauld, hold.
hauden, held.
heezie, a lift.
herds, herders.
heuch, a crag, a steep bank.
hinging, hanging.
hinney, honey.
hirsel, a flock.
hizzie, a housewife, a hussy.
hog, a young sheep.
horning, a warrant for a debtor.
houdie, a midwife.
howm, flat low ground.
humble-cow, a cow without horns.
hunds, hounds.

ilka, every.
ingans, onions.
ingleside, fireside.
I'se, I'll.
ither, other.

jaw-hole, a sink.
Jethart, Jedburgh.
jo, a sweetheart.

kahn, a skiff.
kaim, a low ridge, a comb.
kain, part of a farm-rent paid in fowls.
keep, a stronghold.
keepit, kept, attended.
ken, know.
kenna, do not know.
kibe, an ulcerated chilblain, a chapped heel.
killogie, the open space before a kiln fire.
kilt, upset.
kilting, girding or tucking up.
kimmer, a female gossip.
kinder, children.
kipper, cured salmon.
kirk, church.
kist, a chest, a coffin.
kitchen-mort, kinchen-mort, a girl.
kittle, tickle, ticklish.
kitt, a number, the whole.
knave, a boy.
knevell, knead, beat severely.
kobold, a hobgoblin.

laird, lord of the manor.
lampit, a limpet.
landloupers, persons of wandering tendencies.
lang, long.
lang or, long before.
lang-lugged, long-eared.
langsyne, long ago.
lap and paunel, liquor and food.
lassie, a young girl.
latch, mire.
leddy, a lady.
lee, pasture land.
leg bail, to give, to run away.
letter-gae, the precentor is called by Allan Ramsay
'the letter-gae of haly rhyme.'
leugh, laughed.
levin, lightning, scorn.
licks, blows.
lift, the sky.
like, as it were.
limmer, a jade, a hussy.
links, the windings of a river.
lippen, trust.
loan, an open place, a lane.
loaning, a milking place.
long bowls, ninepins.
looby, a booby, a lout.
loon, a clown, a rogue.
loup, leap, start.
low, blaze, flame.
luckie, an old woman.
lugs, ears.
lunt, blaze, torch.
lykewake, a watch at night over a dead body.

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