Guy Mannering.

260 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
dismantled and ruined tower showed that it had once
harboured beings of a very different description from its
present inhabitants; namely, those freebooters to whose
exploits the wars between England and Scotland bear
witness.
Descending by a path towards a well-known ford,
Dumple crossed the small river, and then quickening his
pace, trotted about a mile briskly up its banks, and approached two or three low thatched houses, placed with
their angles to each other, with a great contempt of regularity. This was the farm-steading of Charlies-hope, or,
in the language of the country, "the Town." A most
furious barking was set up at their approach, by the
whole three generations of Mustard and Pepper, and a
number of allies, names unknown. The farmer made his
well-known voice lustily heard to restore order; the door
opened, and a half-dressed ewe-milker, who had done that
good office, shut it in their faces, in order that she might
run ben the house, to cry "Mistress, mistress, it's the
master, and another man wi' him." Dumple, turned
loose, walked to his own stable-door, and there pawed
and whinnied for admission, in strains which were answered by his acquaintances from the interior. Amid this
bustle, Brown was fain to secure Wasp from the other
dogs, who, with ardour corresponding more to their own
names than to the hospitable temper of their owner, were
much disposed to use the intruder roughly.
In about a minute a stout labourer was patting Dumnple,
and introducing him into the stable, while Mrs. Dinmont,
a well-favoured buxom dame, welcomed her husband with
unfeigned rapture. "Eh, sirs! gudeman, ye hae been a
weary while away." *
* The author may here remark, that the character of Dandie Dil