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.

290 9 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
of attempting in vain to give a new colour to the commonplace description
of such matters; but, notwithstanding, I find myself forced upon it in the
present instance, as circumstances sonnetimes compel a stranger to mak6s
use of an old road which has been for some time shut up. The experienced
reader may have already remarked, that the last chapter was employed in
sweeping out of the way all the unnecessary and less interesting characters,
that I might clear the floor for a blithe bridal.
- In truth, it would be unpardonable to pass over slightly what so deeply
interested our principal personage, King James. That learned and goodbhumoured monarch made no great figure in the politics of Europe; but
then, to make amends, he was prodigiously busy, when he could find a fair
opportunity of intermeddling with the private affairs of his loving subjects;
and the approaching marriage of Lord Glenvarloch was matter of great
interest to him. Ite had been much struck (that is, for him, who was not
very accessible to such emotions) with the beauty and embarrassment of
the pretty Peg-:-Ramsay, as he called her, when he first saw her, and he.glorified himself greatly on the acuteness which he had displayed in detecting her disguise, and in carrying through the whole inquiry which took
place in consequence of it.
He laboured for several weeks, while the courtship was in progress, with
his own royal eyes, so as well-nigh to wear out, he declared, a pair of her
father's best barnacles, in searching through old books and documents, for
the purpose of establishing the bride's pretensions to a noble, though remote
descent, and thereby remove the only objection which envy might conceive
against the match. In his own opinion, at least, he was eminently successful; for, when Sir Mungo Malagrowther one day, in the presence-chamber,
took upon him to grieve bitterly for the bride's lack of pedigree, the monarch
cutfhim short with, " Ye may save your grief for your ain next occasions,
Sir Mungo; for, by our royal saul, we will uphauld her father, Davy Ramsay, to be a gentleman of nine descents, whase great gude-sire came of the
auld martial stock of the House of Dalwolsey, than whom better men never
did, and better never will, draw sword for King and country. Heard ye
never of Sir William Ramsay of Dalwolsey, man, of whom John Fordoun
saith, -' Hie was bellicosissimus, nobilissimus?' —Iis castle stands to witness for itsell, not three miles from DPalkeith, man, and within a mile of
Bannockrigg. Davy Ramsay came of that auld and honoured stock, and I
trust he hath not derogated from his ancestors by his present craft. They
all wrought wi' steel, man; only the auld, knights drilled holes wi' their
swords in their enemies' corslets, and he saws nicks in his brass wheels.
And I hope it is as honourable to give eyes to the blind as to slash them out
of the head of those that see, and to show us how to value our time as it
passes, as to fling it away in drinking, brawling, spear-splintering, and sochlike unchristian doings. And you maun understand, that Davy Ramsay is
no mechanic, but follows a liberal art, which approacheth almost to the act
of creating a living being, seeing it may be said of a watch, as Claudius
saith of the sphere of Archimedes, the Syracusan -
"Iinclusus variis famulatur spiritus astris,
Et vivurn certis motibus urget opus."
" Your Majesty had best give auld Davy a coat-of-arms, as well as a pedigree," said Sir Mungo.
" It's done, or ye bade, Sir Mungo," said the King; " and I trust lwe, who
are the fountain of all earthly honour, are free to spirt a few drops of it on
one so near our person, without offence to the Knight of Castle Girnigo.
We have already spoken with the learned men of the Herald'swCollege, and
we propose to grant him an augmented coat-of-arms, being his paternal coat,
charged with the crown-wheel of a watch in chief, for a difference; and we
purpose to add Time and Eternity, for supporters, as soon as the Garter
iung-at-Arms shall be able to devise how Eternity is to be represented."