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.

178 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
niece, the latter of whom had the tact to give it sufficient admiration; but
Miss Griselda (though she had the same affection for her nephew) had not
address enough to follow the lead.
" It's a bonny thing," she said, " Monkbarns, and, I dare say, a valuable;
but it's out o' my way-ye ken I am nae judge o' sic matters."
"There spoke all Fairport in one voice!" exclaimed Oldbuck; "it is the
very spirit of the borough has infected us all; I think I have smelled the
smoke these two days, that the wind has stuck, like a remora, in the northeast-and its prejudices fly farther than its vapours. Believe me, my dear
Hector, were I to walk up the High-street of Fairport, displaying this inestimable gem in the eyes of each one I met, no human creature, from the
provost to the town-crier, would stop to ask me its history. But if I carried
a bale of linen cloth under my arm, I could not penetrate to the Horsemarket
ere I should be overwhelmed with queries about its precise texture and price.
0, one might parody their brutal ignorance in the words of Gray:
Weave the warp and weave the woof,
The winding-sheet of wit. and sense,
Dull garment of defensive proof'Gainst all that doth not gather pence."
The most remarkable proof of this peace-offering being quite acceptable
was, that while the Antiquary was in full declamation, Juno, who held him
in awe, according to the remarkable instinct by which dogs instantly discover
those who like or dislike them, had peeped several times into the room, and
encountering nothing very forbidding in his aspect, had at length presumed
to introduce her full person; and finally, becoming bold by impunity, she
actually ate up Mr. Oldbuck's toast, as, looking first at one then at another
of his audience, he repeated, with self-complacency,
Weave the warp and weave the woof,You remember the passage in the Fatal Sisters, which, by the way, is not
so fine as in the original — But, hey-day! my toast has vanished - I see
which way-Ah, thou type of womankind! no wonder they take offence at
thy generic appellation!" —(So saying, he shook his fist at Juno, who scoured
out of the parlour.)-" However, as Jupiter, according to l:omer, could not
rule Juno in heaven, and as Jack Muirhead, according to Hector M'Intyre,
has been equally unsuccessful on earth, I suppose she must have her own
way." And this mild censure the brother and sister justly accounted a
full pardon for Juno's offences, and sate down well pleased to the morning
meal.
When breakfast was over, the Antiquary proposed to his nephew to go
down with him to attend the funeral. The soldier pleaded the want of a
mourning habit.
"0, that does not signify —your presence is all that is requisite. I
assure you, you will see something that will entertain- no, that's an improper phrase —but that will interest you, from the resemblances which I
will point out betwixt popular customs on such occasions and those of the
ancients."
"Heaven forgive me!" thought M'Intyre; —" I shall certainly misbehave,
and lose all the credit I have so lately and accidently gained."
When they set out, schooled as' he was by the warning and entreating
looks of his sister, the soldier made his resolution strong to give no offence
by evincing inattention or impatience. But our best resolutions are frail,
when opposed to our predominant inclinations. Our Antiquary,-to leave
nothing unexplained, had commenced with the funeral rites of the ancient
Scandinavians, when his nephew interrupted him, in a discussion upon the
" age of hills," to remark that a large sea-gull, which flitted around them,
had come twice within shot. This error being acknowledged and pardoned,
Oldbuck resumed his disquisition.
" These are circumstances you ought to attend to and be familiar with,