The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

62 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
curious contrast to each other, not indifferent to those who desired to possess
a knowledge of mankind- in its varieties.
It was on such a day, and such an occasion, that my timorous acquaintance and I were about to grace the board of the ruddy-faced host of the
Black Bear, in the town of Darlington, and bishoprick of Durham, when
our landlord informed us, with a sort of apologetic tone, that there was a
Scotch gentleman to dine with us.
" A gentleman! —what sort of a gentleman?" said my companion, somewhat hastily-his mind, I suppose, running on gentlemen of the pad, as
they were then termed.
"Why, a Scotch sort of a gentleman, as I said before," returned mine
host; "they are all gentle, ye mun know, though they ha' narra shirt to
back; but this is a decentish hallion-.a canny North Briton as e'er cross'd
Berwick Bridge- I trow he's a dealer in cattle."
"Let us have his company, by all means," answered my companion;
and then, turning to me, he gave vent to the tenor of his own reflections.
" I respect the Scotch, sir; I love and honour the nation for their sense of
morality. Men talk of their filth and their poverty; but commend me to
sterling honesty, though clad in rags, as the poet saith. I have been credibly assured, sir, by men on whom I can depend, that there was never
known such a thing in Scotland as a highway robbery."'
" That's because they have nothing to lose," said mine host, with the
chuckle of a self-applauding wit.
"No, no, landlord," answered a strong deep voice behind him, "it's e'en
because your English gaugers and supervisors,* that you have sent down
benorth the Tweed, have taen up the trade of thievery over the heads of the
native professors."
"Well said, Mr. Campbell!" answered the landlord; "I did not think
thoud'st been sace near us, mon. But thou kens I'm an outspoken Yorkshire tyke. And how go markets in the south?"
"Even in the ordinar," replied Mr. Campbell; "wise folks buy and sell,
and fools are bought and sold."
"But wise men and fools both eat their dinner," answered our jolly
entertainer; " and here a comes-as prime a buttock of beef as e'er hungry
mon stuck fork in."
So saying, he eagerly whetted his knife, assumed his seat of empire at
the head of the board, and loaded the plates of his sundry guests with his
good cheer.
This was the first time that I had heard the Scottish accent, or, indeed,
that I had familiarly met with an individual of the ancient nation by whom
it was spoken. Yet, from an early period, they had occupied and interested
my imagination. My father, as is well known to you, was of an ancient
family in Northumberland, from whose seat I was, while eating the aforesaid dinner, not very many miles distant. The quarrel betwixt him and his
relatives was such, that'he scarcely ever mentioned the race from which he
sprung, and held as the most contemptible species of vanity, the weakness
which is commonlytermed family pride. His ambition was only to be distinguished as William Osbaldistone, the first, at least one of the first, merchants on Change; and to have proved him the lineal representative of
William the Conqueror, would have far less flattered his vanity than the
hum and bustle which his approach was wont to produce among the bulls,
bears, and brokers of Stock-alley. He wished, no doubt, that I should
remain in such ignorance of my relatives and descent as might insure a correspondence between my feelings and his own on this subject. But his
designs, as will happen occasionally to the wisest, were, in some degree at
least, counteracted by a being whom his pride would never have supposed
* The introduction of gaugers, supervisors, and examiners, was one of the great complaints of the
Scottish nation, though a natural consequence of the Union.