his purpose. He found out the door with no small difficulty, and for some time knocked without producing any other answer than a duet between a female and a cur-dog, the latter yelping as if he would have barked his heart out, the other screaming in chorus. By degrees the human tones predominated; but the angry bark of the cur being at the instant changed into a howl, it is probable something more than fair strength of lungs had contributed to the ascendency.

"Sorrow be in your thrapple then!"-these were the first articulate words,-" will ye no let me hear what the man wants, wi' your yaffing?”

"Am I far from Kippletringan, good dame ?"

"Frae Kippletringan!!!" in an exalted tone of wonder, which we can but faintly express by three points of admiration; "Ow, man! ye should hae hadden eassel to Kippletringan-ye maun gae back as far as the Whaap, and haud the Whaap* till ye come to Ballenloan, and

"This will never do, good dame! my horse is almost quite knocked up-can you not give me a night's lodgings?"

"Troth can I no; I am a lone woman, for James he's awa to Drums hourloch fair with the year-aulds, and I daurna for my life open the door to ony o' your gangthere-out sort o' bodies."

"But what must I do then, good dame? for I can't sleep here upon the road all night."

“Troth, I kenna, unless ye like to gae down and speer for quarters at the Place. I'se warrant they'll tak ye in, whether ye be gentle or semple."

*The Hope, often pronounced Whaap, is the sheltered part or hollow of the hill. Hoff, howff, haaf, and haven, are all modifications of the same word.

"Simple enough, to be wandering here at such a time of night," thought Mannering, who was ignorant of the meaning of the phrase. "But how shall I get to the place, as you call it?”

"Ye maun haud wessel by the end o' the loan, and take tent o' the jaw-hole."

"O, if ye get to eassel and wessel* again, I am undone! Is there nobody that could guide me to this place? I will pay him handsomely."

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The word pay operated like magic. "Jock, ye villain,” exclaimed the voice from the interior, are ye lying routing there, and a young gentleman seeking the way to the Place? Get up, ye fause loon, and show him the way down the muckle loaning.-He'll show you the way, sir, and I'se warrant ye'll be weel put up; for they never turn awa naebody frae the door; and ye'll be come in the canny moment, I'm thinking, for the laird's servantthat's no to say his body-servant, but the helper likerade express by this e'en to fetch the houdie, and he just staid the drinking o' twa pints o' tippeny, to tell us how my leddy was ta'en wi' her pains."

"Perhaps," said Mannering, "at such a time a stranger's arrival might be inconvenient?”

"Hout, na, ye needna be blate about that; their house is muckle eneuch, and clecking † time's aye canty time."

By this time Jock had found his way into all the intricacies of a tattered doublet, and more tattered pair of breeches, and sallied forth, a great white-headed, barelegged, lubberly boy of twelve years old, so exhibited by

*Provincial for eastward and westward.
† Hatching-time.

the glimpse of a rushlight, which his half-naked mother held in such a manner as to get a peep at the stranger, without greatly exposing herself to view in return. Jock moved on westward, by the end of the house, leading Mannering's horse by the bridle, and piloting, with some dexterity, along the little path which bordered the formidable jaw-hole, whose vicinity the stranger was made sensible of by means of more organs than one. His guide then dragged the weary hack along a broken and stony cart-track, next over a ploughed field, then broke down a slap, as he called it, in a dry-stone fence, and lugged the unresisting animal through the breach, about a rood of the simple masonry giving way in the splutter with which he passed. Finally, he led the way, through a wicket, into something which had still the air of an avenue, though many of the trees were felled. The roar of the ocean was now near and full, and the moon, which began to make her appearance, gleamed on a turreted, and apparently a ruined mansion, of considerable extent. Mannering fixed his eyes upon it with a disconsolate sensation.

little fellow," he said, "this is a ruin, not a

"Ah, but the lairds lived there langsyne-that's Ellangowan Auld Place; there's a hantle bogles about it—but ye needna be feared-I never saw ony mysell, and we're just at the door o' the New Place."

Accordingly, leaving the ruins on the right, a few steps brought the traveller in front of a modern house of moderate size, at which his guide rapped with great importance. Mannering told his circumstances to the servant; and the gentleman of the house, who heard his tale from the parlour, stepped forward and welcomed the

stranger hospitably to Ellangowan. The boy, made happy with half-a-crown, was dismissed to his cottage, the weary horse was conducted to a stall, and Mannering found himself in a few minutes seated by a comfortable supper, for which his cold ride gave him a hearty appetite.

CHAPTER II.

Comes me cranking in,

And cuts me from the best of all my land,

A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out.

HENRY THE FOURTH, Part 1.

THE company in the parlour at Ellangowan consisted of the Laird, and a sort of person who might be the village schoolmaster, or perhaps the minister's assistant; his appearance was too shabby to indicate the minister, considering he was on a visit to the Laird.

The Laird himself was one of those second-rate sort of persons, that are to be found frequently in rural situations. Fielding has described one class as feras consumere nati; but the love of field-sports indicates a certain activity of mind, which had forsaken Mr. Bertram, if ever he possessed it. A good-humoured listlessness of countenance formed the only remarkable expression of his features, although they were rather handsome than otherwise. In fact, his physiognomy indicated the inanity of character which pervaded his life. I will give the reader some insight into his state and conversation, before he has finished a long lecture to Mannering, upon the propriety and comfort of wrapping his stirrup-irons round with a wisp of straw when he had occasion to ride in a chill evening.

Godfrey Bertram, of Ellangowan, succeeded to a long