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.

72 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
The rude hall rocks-they come, they come,The din of voices shakes the dome;
In stalk the various forms, and, drest
In varying morion, varying vest,
All march with haughty step-all'proudly shake the crest.
PENROSE.
IF Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone was in no hurry to greet his nephew, of
whose arrival he must have been informed for some time, he had important
avocations to allege in excuse. " Had seen thee sooner, lad," he exclaimed,
after a rough shake of the hand, and a hearty welcome to Osbaldistone
Hall, " but had to see the hounds kennelled first. Thou art welcome to the
Hall, lad -here is thy cousin Percie, thy cousin Thornie, and thy cousin
John- youcousin Dick, your cousin Wilfred, and — stay, where's Rashleigh- ay, here's Rashleigh - take thy long body aside, Thornie, and
let's see thy brother a bit — your cousin Rashleigh. So, thy father has
thought on the old Hall, and old Sir Hildebrand at last -better late than
never-Thou art welcome, lad, and there's enough. Where's my little Die?
-ay, here she comes-this is my niece Die, my wife's brother's daughterthe prettiest girl in our dales, be the other who she may-and so now let's
to the sirloin."To gain some idea of the person who held this language, you must suppose, my dear Tresham, a man aged about sixty, in a hunting suit which
had once been richly laced, but whose splendour had been tarnished by
many a November and December storm. Sir Hildebrand, notwithstanding
the abruptness of his present manner, had, at one period of his life, known
courts and camps; had held a commission in the army which encamped on
Hounslow Heath previous to the Revolution - and, recommended perhaps
by his religion, had been knighted about the same period by the unfortunate
and ill-advised James II. But the Knight's d;eams of further preferment,
if he ever entertained any, had died awayst4ithe crisis which drove his
patron from the throne, and since that peride had spent a sequestered
life upon his native domains. Notwithstanding his rusticity, however, Sir
Hildebrand retained much of the exterior of a gentleman, and appeared
among his sons as the remains of a Corinthian pillar, defaced and overgrown with moss and lichen, might have looked, if contrasted with th6rough unhewn masses of upright stones in Stonehenge, or any other druidical
temple. The sons were, indeed, heavy unadorned blocks as the eye would
desire to look upon. Tall, stout, and comely, all and each of the five eldest
seemed to want alike the Promethean fire of intellect, and the exterior grace
and manner, which, in the polished world, sometimes supply mental deficiency. Their most valuable moral quality seemed to be the good-humour
and content which was expressed in their heavy features, and their only
pretence to accomplishment was their dexterity in field sports, for which
alone they lived. The strong Gyas, and the strong Cloanthus, are not less
distinguished by the poet, than the strong Percival, the strong Thorncliff,
the strong John, Richard, and Wilfred Osbaldistones, were by outward
appearance.
But, as if to indemnify herself for a uniformity so uncommon in her
productions, Dame Nature had rendered Rashleigh Osbaldistone a striking
contrast in person and manner, and, as I afterwards learned, in temper and
talents, not only to his brothers,. but to most men whom I had hitherto met
with. When Percie, Thornie, and Co. had respectively nodded, grinned,
and preserted their shoulder, rather than their hand, as their father named