CalvinU/project-gutenberg · Datasets at Hugging Face

book_id int64 19 72.2k	title stringlengths 2 416	sentence string
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'No,' replied Claud a little pawkily, 'no; thanks be and praise--the banes, I believe, are a' to the fore; but it's no to be expressed what I hae suffer't in the flesh.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Some further conversation then ensued, and the result was most satisfactory, for Claud was invited to take a seat in the cart with the ministers, and induced to send his horse back to Rob Wallace by Johnny Drizen the carrier.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Thus, without any material augmentation of his calamity, was he conveyed to the gate which led to Plealands.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	The Laird, who had all the morning been anxiously looking out for him, on seeing the cart approaching, left the house, and was standing ready at the yett to give him welcome.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	CHAPTER VI Plealands House stood on the bleak brow of a hill.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	It was not of great antiquity, having been raised by the father of Malachi; but it occupied the site of an ancient fortalice, the materials of which were employed in its construction; and as no great skill of the sculptor had been exerted to change the original form of the lintels and their ornaments, it had an air of antiquity much greater than properly belonged to its years.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	About as much as the habitation had been altered from its primitive character, the master too had been modernized.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	But, in whatever degree he may have been supposed to have declined from the heroic bearing of his ancestors, he still inherited, in unabated vigour, the animosity of their spirit; and if the coercive influence of national improvement prevented him from being distinguished in the feud and foray, the books of sederunt, both of the Glasgow Circuit and of the Court of Session, bore ample testimony to his constancy before them in asserting supposed rights, and in vindicating supposed wrongs.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	In his personal appearance, Malachi Hypel had but few pretensions to the gallant air and grace of the gentlemen of that time.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	He was a coarse hard-favoured fresh-coloured carl, with a few white hairs thinly scattered over a round bald head.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	His eyes were small and grey, quick in the glance, and sharp in the expression.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	He spoke thickly and hurriedly, and although his words were all very cogently strung together, there was still an unaccountable obscurity in the precise meaning of what he said.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	In his usual style of dress he was rude and careless, and he commonly wore a large flat-brimmed blue bonnet; but on the occasion when he came to the gate to receive Claud, he had on his Sunday suit and hat.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	After the first salutations were over, he said to Claud, on seeing him walking lamely and uneasily, 'What's the matter, Grippy, that ye seem sae stiff and sair?'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'I met wi' a bit accident,' was Claud's reply: 'Rob Wallace, the horse-couper, gied me sic a deevil to ride as, I believe, never man before mounted.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	I would na wish my sworn enemy a greater ill than a day's journey on that beast's back, especially an he was as little used to riding as me.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	The latter clause of the sentence was muttered inwardly, for the Laird did not hear it; otherwise he would probably have indulged his humour a little at the expense of his guest, as he had a sort of taste for caustic jocularity, which the hirpling manner of Claud was, at the moment, well calculated to provoke.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	On reaching the brow of the rising ground where the house stood, the leddy, as Mrs. Hypel was emphatically called by the neighbouring cottars, with Miss Girzy, came out to be introduced to their relative.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Whether the leddy, a pale, pensive, delicate woman, had been informed by the Laird of the object of Claud's visit, we do not thoroughly know, but she received him with a polite and friendly respectfulness.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Miss Girzy certainly was in total ignorance of the whole business, and was, therefore, not embarrassed with any virgin palpitations, nor blushing anxieties; on the contrary, she met him with the ease and freedom of an old acquaintance.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	It might here be naturally expected that we should describe the charms of Miss Girzy's person, and the graces of her mind; but, in whatever degree she possessed either, she had been allowed to reach the discreet years of a Dumbarton youth in unsolicited maidenhood; indeed, with the aid of all the prospective interest of the inheritance around her, she did not make quite so tender an impression on the heart of her resolved lover as he himself could have wished.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	But why should we expatiate on such particulars?
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Let the manners and virtues of the family speak for themselves, while we proceed to relate what ensued.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	CHAPTER VII 'Girzy,' said the Laird to his daughter, as they entered the dining-room, 'gae to thy bed and bring a cod for Mr. Walkinshaw, for he'll no can thole to sit down on our hard chairs.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Miss Girzy laughed as she retired to execute the order, while her mother continued, as she had done from the first introduction, to inspect Claud from head to foot, with a curious and something of a suspicious eye; there was even an occasional flush that gleamed through the habitual paleness of her thoughtful countenance, redder and warmer than the hectic glow of mere corporeal indisposition.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Her attention, however, was soon drawn to the spacious round table, in the middle of the room, by one of the maids entering with a large pewter tureen, John Drappie, the manservant, having been that morning sent on some caption and horning business of the Laird's to Gabriel Beagle, the Kilmarnock lawyer.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	But, as the critics hold it indelicate to describe the details of any refectionary supply, however elegant, we must not presume to enumerate the series and succession of Scottish fare, which soon crowned the board, all served on pewter as bright as plate.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Our readers must endeavour, by the aid of their own fancies, to form some idea of the various forms in which the head and harigals of the sheep, that had been put to death for the occasion, were served up, not forgetting the sonsy, savoury, sappy haggis, together with the gude fat hen, the float whey, which, in a large china punch-bowl, graced the centre of the table, and supplied the place of jellies, tarts, tartlets, and puddings.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	By the time the table was burdened, Miss Girzy had returned with the pillow, which she herself placed in one of the armchairs, shaking and patting it into plumpness, as she said,-- 'Come round here, Mr. Walkinshaw,--I trow ye'll fin' this a saft easy seat,--well do I ken what it is to be saddle-sick mysel'.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Lordsake, when I gaed in ahint my father to see the robber hanged at Ayr, I was for mair than three days just as if I had sat doun on a heckle.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	When the cloth was removed, and the ladies had retired, the Laird opened his mind by stretching his arm across the table towards his guest, and, shaking him again heartily by the hand,-- 'Weel, Grippy,' said he, 'but am blithe to see you here; and, if am no mistaen, Girzy will no be ill to woo.--Is na she a coothy and kind creature?--She'll make you a capital wife.--There's no another in the parish that kens better how to manage a house.--Man, it would do your heart gude to hear how she rants among the servan' lasses, lazy sluts, that would like nothing better than to live at heck and manger, and bring their master to a morsel; but I trow Girzy gars them keep a trig house and a birring wheel.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'No doubt, Laird,' replied Claud, 'but it's a comfort to hae a frugal woman for a helpmate; but ye ken nowadays it's no the fashion for bare legs to come thegither.--The wife maun hae something to put in the pot as well as the man.--And, although Miss Girzy may na be a'thegither objectionable, yet it would still be a pleasant thing baith to hersel' and the man that gets her, an ye would just gi'e a bit inkling o' what she'll hae.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Is na she my only dochter?
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	That's a proof and test that she'll get a',--naebody needs to be teld mair.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Vera true, Laird,' rejoined the suitor, 'but the leddy's life's in her lip, and if ony thing were happening to her, ye're a hale man, and wha kens what would be the upshot o' a second marriage?'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'That's looking far ben,' replied the Laird, and he presently added, more briskly, 'My wife, to be sure, is a frail woman, but she's no the gear that 'ill traike.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	In this delicate and considerate way, the overture to a purpose of marriage was opened; and, not to dwell on particulars, it is sufficient to say, that, in the course of little more than a month thereafter, Miss Girzy was translated into the Leddy of Grippy; and in due season presented her husband with a son and heir, who was baptized by the name of Charles.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	When the birth was communicated to the Laird, he rode expressly to Grippy to congratulate his son-in-law on the occasion; and, when they were sitting together, in the afternoon, according to the fashion of the age, enjoying the contents of the gardevin entire, Claud warily began to sound him on a subject that lay very near his heart.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Laird,' said he, 'ye ken the Walkinshaws of Kittlestonheugh are o' a vera ancient blood, and but for the doited prank o' my grandfather, in sending my father on that gouk's errand to the Darien, the hills are green and the land broad that should this day hae been mine; and, therefore, to put it out o' the power of posterity to play at any sic wastrie again, I mean to entail the property of the Grippy.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'That's a very good conceit,' replied the Laird, 'and I hae mysel' had a notion of entailing the Plealands likewise.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'So I hae heard you say,' rejoined Claud, 'and now that the bairn's born, and a laddie too, we may make ae work o't.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Wi' a' my heart,' replied the Laird, 'nothing can be more agreeable to me; but as I wish to preserve the name of my family, than whilk there's no a more respectit in Scotland, I'll only covenant that when Charlie succeeds me, that he'll take the name o' Hypel.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Ye surely, Laird, would ne'er be so unreasonable,' replied Grippy, a little hastily; 'ye can ne'er be sae unreasonable as to expect that the lad would gie up his father's name, the name o' Walkinshaw, and take only that of Hypel.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	''Deed would I,' said the Laird, 'for no haeing a son o' my own to come after me, it's surely very natural that I would like the Hypels to kittle again in my oe through my only dochter.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'The Walkinshaws, I doubt,' replied Claud emphatically, 'will ne'er consent to sic an eclipse as that.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'The lands of Plealands,' retorted the Laird, 'are worth something.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'So it was thought, or I doubt the heir o't would nae hae been a Walkinshaw,' replied Claud, still more pertinaciously.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Weel, weel,' said the Laird, 'dinna let us argol bargol about it; entail your own property as ye will, mine shall be on the second son; ye can ne'er object to that.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Second son, and the first scarce sax days auld!
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	I tell you what it is, an ye'll no make the entail on the first, that is, on Charlie Walkinshaw, to be Walkinshaw, mind that, I'll no say what may happen in the way o' second sons.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'The Plealands' my ain, and though I canna weel will it awa', and ne'er will sell't, yet get it wha will, he maun tak the name o' Hypel.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	The thing's sae settled, Grippy, and it's no for you and me to cast out about it.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Claud made several attempts to revive the subject, and to persuade the Laird to change his mind, but he was inflexible.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Still, however, being resolved, as far as in him lay, to anticipate the indiscretion of his heirs, he executed a deed of entail on Charles; and for a considerable time after the Laird was not a little confirmed in his determination not to execute any deed in favour of Charles, but to reserve his lands for the second son, by the very reason that might have led another sort of person to act differently, namely, that he understood there was no prospect of any such appearing.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Towards the end, however, of the third year after the birth of Charles, Claud communicated to the Laird, that, by some unaccountable dispensation, Mrs. Walkinshaw was again in the way to be a mother, adding, 'Noo, Laird, ye'll hae your ain way o't;' and, accordingly, as soon as Walter, the second son, was born, and baptized, the lands of Plealands were entailed on him, on condition, as his grandfather intended, that he should assume the name of Hypel.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	CHAPTER VIII For several years after the birth of Walter, no event of any consequence happened in the affairs of Claud.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	He continued to persevere in the parsimonious system which had so far advanced his fortune.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	His wife was no less industrious on her part, for, in the meantime, she presented him with a daughter and another son, and had reared calves and grumphies innumerable, the profit of which, as she often said, was as good as the meal and malt o' the family.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	By their united care and endeavours, Grippy thus became one of the wealthiest men of that age in Glasgow; but although different desirable opportunities presented themselves for investing his money in other and more valuable land, he kept it ever ready to redeem any portion of his ancestral estate that might be offered for sale.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	The satisfaction which he enjoyed from his accumulative prospects was not, however, without a mixture of that anxiety with which the cup of human prosperity, whether really full, or only foaming, is always embittered.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	The Laird, his father-in-law, in the deed of entail which he executed of the Plealands, had reserved to himself a power of revocation, in the event of his wife dying before him, in the first instance, and of Walter and George, the two younger sons of Grippy, either dying under age, or refusing to take the name of Hypel, in the second.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	This power, both under the circumstances, and in itself, was perfectly reasonable; and perhaps it was the more vexatious to the meditations of Claud, that it happened to be so.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	For he often said to his wife, as they sat of an evening by the fire-side in the dark, for as the leddy was no seamstress, and he had as little taste for literature, of course, they burned no candles when by themselves, and that was almost every night,--'I marvel, Girzy, what could gar your father put that most unsafe claw in his entail.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	I would na be surprised if out o' it were to come a mean of taking the property entirely frae us.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	For ye see, if your mither was dead, and, poor woman, she has lang been in a feckless way, there's no doubt but your father would marry again,--and married again, there can be as little doubt that he would hae childer,--so what then would become o' ours--'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	To this the worthy leddy of Grippy would as feelingly reply,-- 'I'm thinking, gudeman, that ye need na tak the anxieties sae muckle to heart; for, although my mither has been, past the memory o' man, in a complaining condition, I ken nae odds o' her this many a year; her ail's like water to leather; it makes her life the tougher; and I would put mair confidence in the durability of her complaint than in my father's health; so we need na fash ourselves wi' controverting anent what may come o' the death o' either the t'ane or the t'ither.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'But then,' replied Claud, 'ye forget the other claw about Watty and Geordie.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Supposing, noo, that they were baith dead and gone, which, when we think o' the frush green kail-custock-like nature of bairns, is no an impossibility in the hands of their Maker.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Will it no be the most hardest thing that ever was seen in the world for Charlie no to inherit the breadth o' the blade of a cabaudge o' a' his father's matrimonial conquest?
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	But even should it please the Lord to spare Watty, is't no an afflicting thing, to see sic a braw property as the Plealands destined to a creature that I am sure his brother Geordie, if he lives to come to years o' discretion, will no fail to tak the law o' for a haverel?'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'I won'er to hear you, gudeman,' exclaimed the leddy, 'ay mislikening Watty at that gait.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	I'm sure he's as muckle your ain as ony o' the ither bairns; and he's a weel-tempered laddie, lilting like a linty at the door-cheek frae morning to night, when Charlie's rampaging about the farm, riving his claes on bush and brier a' the summer, tormenting the birds and mawkins out o' their vera life.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Singing, Girzy, I'm really distressed to hear you,' replied the father; 'to ca' yon singing; it's nothing but lal, lal, lal, lal, wi' a bow and a bend, backwards and forwards, as if the creature had na the gumpshion o' the cuckoo, the whilk has a note mair in its sang, although it has but twa.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'It's an innocent sang for a' that; and I wish his brothers may ne'er do waur than sing the like o't.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	But ye just hae a spite at the bairn, gudeman, 'cause my father has made him the heir to the Plealands.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	That's the gospel truth o' your being so fain to gar folk trow that my Watty's daft.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Ye're daft, gudewife--are na we speaking here in a rational manner anent the concerns o' our family?
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	It would be a sair heart to me to think that Watty, or any o' my bairns, were na like the lave o' the warld; but ye ken there are degrees o' capacity, Girzy, and Watty's, poor callan, we maun alloo, between oursels, has been meted by a sma' measure.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Weel, if ever I heard the like o' that--if the Lord has dealt the brains o' our family in mutchkins and chapins, it's my opinion, that Watty got his in the biggest stoup; for he's farther on in every sort of education than Charlie, and can say his questions without missing a word, as far as "What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?"
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	And I ne'er hae been able to get his brother beyond "What is effectual calling?"
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Though, I'll no deny, he's better at the Mother's Carritches; but that a' comes o' the questions and answers being so vera short.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'That's the vera thing, Girzy, that disturbs me,' replied the father, 'for the callan can get ony thing by heart, but, after all, he's just like a book, for every thing he learns is dead within him, and he's ne'er a prin's worth the wiser o't.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	But it's some satisfaction to me, that, since your father would be so unreasonably obstinate as to make away the Plealands past Charlie, he'll be punished in the gouk he's chosen for heir.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Gude guide us; is na that gouk your ain bairn?'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	exclaimed the indignant mother.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Surely the man's fey about his entails and his properties, to speak o' the illess laddie, as if it were no better than a stirk or a stot.--Ye'll no hae the power to wrang my wean, while the breath o' life's in my body; so, I redde ye, tak tent to what ye try.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Girzy, t'ou has a head, and so has a nail.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Gudeman, ye hae a tongue, and so has a bell.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Weel, weel, but what I was saying a' concerns the benefit and advantage o' our family,' said Claud, 'and ye ken as it is our duty to live for one another, and to draw a' thegither, it behoves us twa, as parents, to see that ilk is properly yocket, sin' it would surely be a great misfortune,
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	if, after a' our frugality and gathering, the cart were cowpit in the dirt at last by ony neglek on our part.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'That's ay what ye say,' replied the lady,--'a's for the family, and nothing for the dividual bairns--noo that's what I can never understand, for is na our family, Charlie, Watty, Geordie, and Meg?'-- 'My family,' said Claud emphatically, 'was the Walkinshaws of Kittlestonheugh, and let me tell you, Girzy Hypel, if it had na been on their account, there would ne'er hae been a Charlie nor a Watty either between you and me to plea about.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'I'm no denying your parentage--I ne'er said a light word about it, but I canna comprehend how it is, that ye would mak step-bairns o' your ain blithesome childer on account o' a wheen auld dead patriarchs that hae been rotten, for aught I ken to the contrary, since before Abraham begat Isaac.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	'Haud thy tongue, woman, haud thy tongue.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	It's a thrashing o' the water, and a raising o' bells, to speak to ane o' thy capacity on things so far aboon thy understanding.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Gae but the house, and see gin the supper's ready.'
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	In this manner, the conversations between Grippy and his leddy were usually conducted to their natural issue, a quarrel, which ended in a rupture that was only healed by a peremptory command, which sent her on some household mission, during the performance of which the bickering was forgotten.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	CHAPTER IX In the meantime, as much friendliness and intercourse was maintained between the families of Grippy and Plealands as could reasonably be expected from the characters and dispositions of the respective inmates.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	Shortly, however, after the conversation related in the preceding chapter had taken place, it happened that, as Malachi was returning on horseback from Glasgow, where he had lost a law-suit, long prosecuted with the most relentless pertinacity against one of his tenants, he was overtaken on the Mairns Moor by one of those sudden squalls and showers, which the genius of the place so often raises, no doubt purposely, to conceal from the weary traveller the dreariness of the view around, and being wetted into the skin, the cold which he caught in consequence, and the irritation of his mind, brought on a fever, that terminated fatally on the fifth day.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	His funeral was conducted according to the fashion of the age; but the day appointed was raw, windy, and sleety; not, however, so much so as to prevent the friends of the deceased from flocking in from every quarter.
44,573	The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy	The assemblage that arrived far transcended all that can be imagined, in these economical days, of the attendance requisite on any such occasion.

44,573

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

'No,' replied Claud a little pawkily, 'no; thanks be and praise--the banes, I believe, are a' to the fore; but it's no to be expressed what I hae suffer't in the flesh.'

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The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Some further conversation then ensued, and the result was most satisfactory, for Claud was invited to take a seat in the cart with the ministers, and induced to send his horse back to Rob Wallace by Johnny Drizen the carrier.

44,573

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Thus, without any material augmentation of his calamity, was he conveyed to the gate which led to Plealands.

44,573

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Laird, who had all the morning been anxiously looking out for him, on seeing the cart approaching, left the house, and was standing ready at the yett to give him welcome.

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The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

CHAPTER VI Plealands House stood on the bleak brow of a hill.

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The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

It was not of great antiquity, having been raised by the father of Malachi; but it occupied the site of an ancient fortalice, the materials of which were employed in its construction; and as no great skill of the sculptor had been exerted to change the original form of the lintels and their ornaments, it had an air of antiquity much greater than properly belonged to its years.

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The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

About as much as the habitation had been altered from its primitive character, the master too had been modernized.

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The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

But, in whatever degree he may have been supposed to have declined from the heroic bearing of his ancestors, he still inherited, in unabated vigour, the animosity of their spirit; and if the coercive influence of national improvement prevented him from being distinguished in the feud and foray, the books of sederunt, both of the Glasgow Circuit and of the Court of Session, bore ample testimony to his constancy before them in asserting supposed rights, and in vindicating supposed wrongs.

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The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

In his personal appearance, Malachi Hypel had but few pretensions to the gallant air and grace of the gentlemen of that time.

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The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

He was a coarse hard-favoured fresh-coloured carl, with a few white hairs thinly scattered over a round bald head.

44,573

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

His eyes were small and grey, quick in the glance, and sharp in the expression.

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The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

He spoke thickly and hurriedly, and although his words were all very cogently strung together, there was still an unaccountable obscurity in the precise meaning of what he said.

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In his usual style of dress he was rude and careless, and he commonly wore a large flat-brimmed blue bonnet; but on the occasion when he came to the gate to receive Claud, he had on his Sunday suit and hat.

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After the first salutations were over, he said to Claud, on seeing him walking lamely and uneasily, 'What's the matter, Grippy, that ye seem sae stiff and sair?'

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'I met wi' a bit accident,' was Claud's reply: 'Rob Wallace, the horse-couper, gied me sic a deevil to ride as, I believe, never man before mounted.

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I would na wish my sworn enemy a greater ill than a day's journey on that beast's back, especially an he was as little used to riding as me.'

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The latter clause of the sentence was muttered inwardly, for the Laird did not hear it; otherwise he would probably have indulged his humour a little at the expense of his guest, as he had a sort of taste for caustic jocularity, which the hirpling manner of Claud was, at the moment, well calculated to provoke.

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On reaching the brow of the rising ground where the house stood, the leddy, as Mrs. Hypel was emphatically called by the neighbouring cottars, with Miss Girzy, came out to be introduced to their relative.

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Whether the leddy, a pale, pensive, delicate woman, had been informed by the Laird of the object of Claud's visit, we do not thoroughly know, but she received him with a polite and friendly respectfulness.

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Miss Girzy certainly was in total ignorance of the whole business, and was, therefore, not embarrassed with any virgin palpitations, nor blushing anxieties; on the contrary, she met him with the ease and freedom of an old acquaintance.

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It might here be naturally expected that we should describe the charms of Miss Girzy's person, and the graces of her mind; but, in whatever degree she possessed either, she had been allowed to reach the discreet years of a Dumbarton youth in unsolicited maidenhood; indeed, with the aid of all the prospective interest of the inheritance around her, she did not make quite so tender an impression on the heart of her resolved lover as he himself could have wished.

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But why should we expatiate on such particulars?

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Let the manners and virtues of the family speak for themselves, while we proceed to relate what ensued.

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CHAPTER VII 'Girzy,' said the Laird to his daughter, as they entered the dining-room, 'gae to thy bed and bring a cod for Mr. Walkinshaw, for he'll no can thole to sit down on our hard chairs.'

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Miss Girzy laughed as she retired to execute the order, while her mother continued, as she had done from the first introduction, to inspect Claud from head to foot, with a curious and something of a suspicious eye; there was even an occasional flush that gleamed through the habitual paleness of her thoughtful countenance, redder and warmer than the hectic glow of mere corporeal indisposition.

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Her attention, however, was soon drawn to the spacious round table, in the middle of the room, by one of the maids entering with a large pewter tureen, John Drappie, the manservant, having been that morning sent on some caption and horning business of the Laird's to Gabriel Beagle, the Kilmarnock lawyer.

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But, as the critics hold it indelicate to describe the details of any refectionary supply, however elegant, we must not presume to enumerate the series and succession of Scottish fare, which soon crowned the board, all served on pewter as bright as plate.

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Our readers must endeavour, by the aid of their own fancies, to form some idea of the various forms in which the head and harigals of the sheep, that had been put to death for the occasion, were served up, not forgetting the sonsy, savoury, sappy haggis, together with the gude fat hen, the float whey, which, in a large china punch-bowl, graced the centre of the table, and supplied the place of jellies, tarts, tartlets, and puddings.

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By the time the table was burdened, Miss Girzy had returned with the pillow, which she herself placed in one of the armchairs, shaking and patting it into plumpness, as she said,-- 'Come round here, Mr. Walkinshaw,--I trow ye'll fin' this a saft easy seat,--well do I ken what it is to be saddle-sick mysel'.

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Lordsake, when I gaed in ahint my father to see the robber hanged at Ayr, I was for mair than three days just as if I had sat doun on a heckle.'

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When the cloth was removed, and the ladies had retired, the Laird opened his mind by stretching his arm across the table towards his guest, and, shaking him again heartily by the hand,-- 'Weel, Grippy,' said he, 'but am blithe to see you here; and, if am no mistaen, Girzy will no be ill to woo.--Is na she a coothy and kind creature?--She'll make you a capital wife.--There's no another in the parish that kens better how to manage a house.--Man, it would do your heart gude to hear how she rants among the servan' lasses, lazy sluts, that would like nothing better than to live at heck and manger, and bring their master to a morsel; but I trow Girzy gars them keep a trig house and a birring wheel.'

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'No doubt, Laird,' replied Claud, 'but it's a comfort to hae a frugal woman for a helpmate; but ye ken nowadays it's no the fashion for bare legs to come thegither.--The wife maun hae something to put in the pot as well as the man.--And, although Miss Girzy may na be a'thegither objectionable, yet it would still be a pleasant thing baith to hersel' and the man that gets her, an ye would just gi'e a bit inkling o' what she'll hae.'

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'Is na she my only dochter?

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That's a proof and test that she'll get a',--naebody needs to be teld mair.'

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'Vera true, Laird,' rejoined the suitor, 'but the leddy's life's in her lip, and if ony thing were happening to her, ye're a hale man, and wha kens what would be the upshot o' a second marriage?'

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'That's looking far ben,' replied the Laird, and he presently added, more briskly, 'My wife, to be sure, is a frail woman, but she's no the gear that 'ill traike.'

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In this delicate and considerate way, the overture to a purpose of marriage was opened; and, not to dwell on particulars, it is sufficient to say, that, in the course of little more than a month thereafter, Miss Girzy was translated into the Leddy of Grippy; and in due season presented her husband with a son and heir, who was baptized by the name of Charles.

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When the birth was communicated to the Laird, he rode expressly to Grippy to congratulate his son-in-law on the occasion; and, when they were sitting together, in the afternoon, according to the fashion of the age, enjoying the contents of the gardevin entire, Claud warily began to sound him on a subject that lay very near his heart.

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'Laird,' said he, 'ye ken the Walkinshaws of Kittlestonheugh are o' a vera ancient blood, and but for the doited prank o' my grandfather, in sending my father on that gouk's errand to the Darien, the hills are green and the land broad that should this day hae been mine; and, therefore, to put it out o' the power of posterity to play at any sic wastrie again, I mean to entail the property of the Grippy.'

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'That's a very good conceit,' replied the Laird, 'and I hae mysel' had a notion of entailing the Plealands likewise.'

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'So I hae heard you say,' rejoined Claud, 'and now that the bairn's born, and a laddie too, we may make ae work o't.'

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'Wi' a' my heart,' replied the Laird, 'nothing can be more agreeable to me; but as I wish to preserve the name of my family, than whilk there's no a more respectit in Scotland, I'll only covenant that when Charlie succeeds me, that he'll take the name o' Hypel.'

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'Ye surely, Laird, would ne'er be so unreasonable,' replied Grippy, a little hastily; 'ye can ne'er be sae unreasonable as to expect that the lad would gie up his father's name, the name o' Walkinshaw, and take only that of Hypel.'

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''Deed would I,' said the Laird, 'for no haeing a son o' my own to come after me, it's surely very natural that I would like the Hypels to kittle again in my oe through my only dochter.'

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'The Walkinshaws, I doubt,' replied Claud emphatically, 'will ne'er consent to sic an eclipse as that.'

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'The lands of Plealands,' retorted the Laird, 'are worth something.'

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'So it was thought, or I doubt the heir o't would nae hae been a Walkinshaw,' replied Claud, still more pertinaciously.

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'Weel, weel,' said the Laird, 'dinna let us argol bargol about it; entail your own property as ye will, mine shall be on the second son; ye can ne'er object to that.'

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'Second son, and the first scarce sax days auld!

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I tell you what it is, an ye'll no make the entail on the first, that is, on Charlie Walkinshaw, to be Walkinshaw, mind that, I'll no say what may happen in the way o' second sons.'

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'The Plealands' my ain, and though I canna weel will it awa', and ne'er will sell't, yet get it wha will, he maun tak the name o' Hypel.

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The thing's sae settled, Grippy, and it's no for you and me to cast out about it.'

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Claud made several attempts to revive the subject, and to persuade the Laird to change his mind, but he was inflexible.

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Still, however, being resolved, as far as in him lay, to anticipate the indiscretion of his heirs, he executed a deed of entail on Charles; and for a considerable time after the Laird was not a little confirmed in his determination not to execute any deed in favour of Charles, but to reserve his lands for the second son, by the very reason that might have led another sort of person to act differently, namely, that he understood there was no prospect of any such appearing.

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Towards the end, however, of the third year after the birth of Charles, Claud communicated to the Laird, that, by some unaccountable dispensation, Mrs. Walkinshaw was again in the way to be a mother, adding, 'Noo, Laird, ye'll hae your ain way o't;' and, accordingly, as soon as Walter, the second son, was born, and baptized, the lands of Plealands were entailed on him, on condition, as his grandfather intended, that he should assume the name of Hypel.

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CHAPTER VIII For several years after the birth of Walter, no event of any consequence happened in the affairs of Claud.

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He continued to persevere in the parsimonious system which had so far advanced his fortune.

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His wife was no less industrious on her part, for, in the meantime, she presented him with a daughter and another son, and had reared calves and grumphies innumerable, the profit of which, as she often said, was as good as the meal and malt o' the family.

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By their united care and endeavours, Grippy thus became one of the wealthiest men of that age in Glasgow; but although different desirable opportunities presented themselves for investing his money in other and more valuable land, he kept it ever ready to redeem any portion of his ancestral estate that might be offered for sale.

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The satisfaction which he enjoyed from his accumulative prospects was not, however, without a mixture of that anxiety with which the cup of human prosperity, whether really full, or only foaming, is always embittered.

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The Laird, his father-in-law, in the deed of entail which he executed of the Plealands, had reserved to himself a power of revocation, in the event of his wife dying before him, in the first instance, and of Walter and George, the two younger sons of Grippy, either dying under age, or refusing to take the name of Hypel, in the second.

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This power, both under the circumstances, and in itself, was perfectly reasonable; and perhaps it was the more vexatious to the meditations of Claud, that it happened to be so.

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For he often said to his wife, as they sat of an evening by the fire-side in the dark, for as the leddy was no seamstress, and he had as little taste for literature, of course, they burned no candles when by themselves, and that was almost every night,--'I marvel, Girzy, what could gar your father put that most unsafe claw in his entail.

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I would na be surprised if out o' it were to come a mean of taking the property entirely frae us.

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For ye see, if your mither was dead, and, poor woman, she has lang been in a feckless way, there's no doubt but your father would marry again,--and married again, there can be as little doubt that he would hae childer,--so what then would become o' ours--'

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To this the worthy leddy of Grippy would as feelingly reply,-- 'I'm thinking, gudeman, that ye need na tak the anxieties sae muckle to heart; for, although my mither has been, past the memory o' man, in a complaining condition, I ken nae odds o' her this many a year; her ail's like water to leather; it makes her life the tougher; and I would put mair confidence in the durability of her complaint than in my father's health; so we need na fash ourselves wi' controverting anent what may come o' the death o' either the t'ane or the t'ither.'

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'But then,' replied Claud, 'ye forget the other claw about Watty and Geordie.

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Supposing, noo, that they were baith dead and gone, which, when we think o' the frush green kail-custock-like nature of bairns, is no an impossibility in the hands of their Maker.

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Will it no be the most hardest thing that ever was seen in the world for Charlie no to inherit the breadth o' the blade of a cabaudge o' a' his father's matrimonial conquest?

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But even should it please the Lord to spare Watty, is't no an afflicting thing, to see sic a braw property as the Plealands destined to a creature that I am sure his brother Geordie, if he lives to come to years o' discretion, will no fail to tak the law o' for a haverel?'

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'I won'er to hear you, gudeman,' exclaimed the leddy, 'ay mislikening Watty at that gait.

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I'm sure he's as muckle your ain as ony o' the ither bairns; and he's a weel-tempered laddie, lilting like a linty at the door-cheek frae morning to night, when Charlie's rampaging about the farm, riving his claes on bush and brier a' the summer, tormenting the birds and mawkins out o' their vera life.'

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'Singing, Girzy, I'm really distressed to hear you,' replied the father; 'to ca' yon singing; it's nothing but lal, lal, lal, lal, wi' a bow and a bend, backwards and forwards, as if the creature had na the gumpshion o' the cuckoo, the whilk has a note mair in its sang, although it has but twa.'

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'It's an innocent sang for a' that; and I wish his brothers may ne'er do waur than sing the like o't.

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But ye just hae a spite at the bairn, gudeman, 'cause my father has made him the heir to the Plealands.

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That's the gospel truth o' your being so fain to gar folk trow that my Watty's daft.'

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'Ye're daft, gudewife--are na we speaking here in a rational manner anent the concerns o' our family?

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It would be a sair heart to me to think that Watty, or any o' my bairns, were na like the lave o' the warld; but ye ken there are degrees o' capacity, Girzy, and Watty's, poor callan, we maun alloo, between oursels, has been meted by a sma' measure.'

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'Weel, if ever I heard the like o' that--if the Lord has dealt the brains o' our family in mutchkins and chapins, it's my opinion, that Watty got his in the biggest stoup; for he's farther on in every sort of education than Charlie, and can say his questions without missing a word, as far as "What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?"

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And I ne'er hae been able to get his brother beyond "What is effectual calling?"

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Though, I'll no deny, he's better at the Mother's Carritches; but that a' comes o' the questions and answers being so vera short.'

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'That's the vera thing, Girzy, that disturbs me,' replied the father, 'for the callan can get ony thing by heart, but, after all, he's just like a book, for every thing he learns is dead within him, and he's ne'er a prin's worth the wiser o't.

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But it's some satisfaction to me, that, since your father would be so unreasonably obstinate as to make away the Plealands past Charlie, he'll be punished in the gouk he's chosen for heir.'

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'Gude guide us; is na that gouk your ain bairn?'

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exclaimed the indignant mother.

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'Surely the man's fey about his entails and his properties, to speak o' the illess laddie, as if it were no better than a stirk or a stot.--Ye'll no hae the power to wrang my wean, while the breath o' life's in my body; so, I redde ye, tak tent to what ye try.'

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'Girzy, t'ou has a head, and so has a nail.'

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'Gudeman, ye hae a tongue, and so has a bell.'

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'Weel, weel, but what I was saying a' concerns the benefit and advantage o' our family,' said Claud, 'and ye ken as it is our duty to live for one another, and to draw a' thegither, it behoves us twa, as parents, to see that ilk is properly yocket, sin' it would surely be a great misfortune,

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if, after a' our frugality and gathering, the cart were cowpit in the dirt at last by ony neglek on our part.'

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'That's ay what ye say,' replied the lady,--'a's for the family, and nothing for the dividual bairns--noo that's what I can never understand, for is na our family, Charlie, Watty, Geordie, and Meg?'-- 'My family,' said Claud emphatically, 'was the Walkinshaws of Kittlestonheugh, and let me tell you, Girzy Hypel, if it had na been on their account, there would ne'er hae been a Charlie nor a Watty either between you and me to plea about.'

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'I'm no denying your parentage--I ne'er said a light word about it, but I canna comprehend how it is, that ye would mak step-bairns o' your ain blithesome childer on account o' a wheen auld dead patriarchs that hae been rotten, for aught I ken to the contrary, since before Abraham begat Isaac.'

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'Haud thy tongue, woman, haud thy tongue.

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It's a thrashing o' the water, and a raising o' bells, to speak to ane o' thy capacity on things so far aboon thy understanding.

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Gae but the house, and see gin the supper's ready.'

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In this manner, the conversations between Grippy and his leddy were usually conducted to their natural issue, a quarrel, which ended in a rupture that was only healed by a peremptory command, which sent her on some household mission, during the performance of which the bickering was forgotten.

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CHAPTER IX In the meantime, as much friendliness and intercourse was maintained between the families of Grippy and Plealands as could reasonably be expected from the characters and dispositions of the respective inmates.

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Shortly, however, after the conversation related in the preceding chapter had taken place, it happened that, as Malachi was returning on horseback from Glasgow, where he had lost a law-suit, long prosecuted with the most relentless pertinacity against one of his tenants, he was overtaken on the Mairns Moor by one of those sudden squalls and showers, which the genius of the place so often raises, no doubt purposely, to conceal from the weary traveller the dreariness of the view around, and being wetted into the skin, the cold which he caught in consequence, and the irritation of his mind, brought on a fever, that terminated fatally on the fifth day.

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His funeral was conducted according to the fashion of the age; but the day appointed was raw, windy, and sleety; not, however, so much so as to prevent the friends of the deceased from flocking in from every quarter.

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The assemblage that arrived far transcended all that can be imagined, in these economical days, of the attendance requisite on any such occasion.