In other respects, Sir Arthur Wardour lived like most country gentlemen in Scotland, hunted and fished--gave and received dinners--attended races and county meetings--was a deputy-lieutenant and trustee upon turnpike acts.But, in his more advanced years, as he became too lazy or unwieldy for field-sports, he supplied them by now and then reading Scottish history; and, having gradually acquired a taste for antiquities, though neither very deep nor very correct, he became a crony of his neighbour, Mr.Oldbuck of Monkbarns, and a joint-labourer with him in his antiquarian pursuits.
There were, however, points of difference between these two humourists, which sometimes occasioned discord.The faith of Sir Arthur, as an antiquary, was boundless, and Mr.Oldbuck (notwithstanding the affair of the Pr
torium at the Kaim of Kinprunes) was much more scrupulous in receiving legends as current and authentic coin.Sir Arthur would have deemed himself guilty of the crime of leze-majesty had he doubted the existence of any single individual of that formidable head-roll of one hundred and four kings of Scotland, received by Boethius, and rendered classical by Buchanan, in virtue of whom James VI.claimed to rule his ancient kingdom, and whose portraits still frown grimly upon the walls of the gallery of Holyrood.
Now Oldbuck, a shrewd and suspicious man, and no respecter of divine hereditary right, was apt to cavil at this sacred list, and to affirm, that the procession of the posterity of Fergus through the pages of Scottish history, was as vain and unsubstantial as the gleamy pageant of the descendants of Banquo through the cavern of Hecate.
Another tender topic was the good fame of Queen Mary, of which the knight was a most chivalrous assertor, while the esquire impugned it, in spite both of her beauty and misfortunes.
When, unhappily, their conversation turned on yet later times, motives of discord occurred in almost every page of history.
Oldbuck was, upon principle, a staunch Presbyterian, a ruling elder of the kirk, and a friend to revolution principles and Protestant succession, while Sir Arthur was the very reverse of all this.They agreed, it is true, in dutiful love and allegiance to the sovereign who now fills* the throne; but this was their * The reader will understand that this refers to the reign of our late * gracious Sovereign, George the Third.
only point of union, It therefore often happened, that bickerings hot broke out between them, in which Oldbuck was not always able to suppress his caustic humour, while it would sometimes occur to the Baronet that the descendant of a German printer, whose sires had ``sought the base fellowship of paltry burghers,'' forgot himself, and took an unlicensed freedom of debate, considering the rank and ancient descent of his antagonist.
This, with the old feud of the coach-horses, and the seizure of his manor-place and tower of strength by Mr.Oldbuck's father, would at times rush upon his mind, and inflame at once his cheeks and his arguments.And, lastly, as Mr.
Oldbuck thought his worthy friend and compeer was in some respects little better than a fool, he was apt to come more near communicating to him that unfavourable opinion, than the rules of modern politeness warrant.In such cases they often parted in deep dudgeon, and with something like a resolution to forbear each other's company in future:
But with the morning calm reflection came;and as each was sensible that the society of the other had become, through habit, essential to his comfort, the breach was speedily made up between them.On such occasions, Oldbuck, considering that the Baronet's pettishness resembled that of a child, usually showed his superior sense by compassionately making the first advances to reconciliation.But it once or twice happened that the aristocratic pride of the far-descended knight took a flight too offensive to the feelings of the representative of the typographer.In these cases, the breach between these two originals might have been immortal, but for the kind exertion and interposition of the Baronet's daughter, Miss Isabella Wardour, who, with a son, now absent upon foreign and military service, formed his whole surviving family.She was well aware how necessary Mr.Oldbuck was to her father's amusement and comfort, and seldom failed to interpose with effect, when the office of a mediator between them was rendered necessary by the satirical shrewdness of the one, or the assumed superiority of the other.Under Isabella's mild influence, the wrongs of Queen Mary were forgotten by her father, and Mr.
