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.

THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. 65
the commanding'screen of forest, terminating in a mountain-ridge abounding with deer-and all the other advaintagres of that fine and ancient barony,
till Nigel in spite of every effort to the contrary, was unwillingly obliged to
sigh.
Sir Mungo, skilful in discerning when the withers of those he conversed
with were wrung, observed that his new acquaintance winced, and would
willingly have pressed the discussion; but the cook's impatient knock upon
the dresser with the haft of his dudgeon-knife, now gave a- signal loud
enough to be heard from the top of the house to the bottom, summoning, at
the same time, the serving-men to place the dinner upon the table, and -the
guests to partake of it.
Sir Mungo, who was an admirer of good cheer, -- a taste which, by the
way, might have some weight in reconciling his dignity to these city visits,
— was tolled off by the sound, and left Nigel and the other guests in peace,
until his anxiety to arrange himself in his due place of pre-eminence at the
genial board was duly gratified. HIere, seated on the left-hand of Aunt
Judith, he beheld Nigel occupy the station of yet higher honour on the
right, dividing that matron from pretty Mistress Margaret; but he saw this
with the more patience, that there stood betwixt him and the young lord a
superb-larded capon.
The dinner proceeded according to the form of the times. All was excellent of the kind; and, besides the Scottish cheer promised, the board displayed beef and pudding, the statutory dainties of old England. A small
cupboard of plate, very choicely and beautifully wrought, did not escape the
compliments of some of the company, and an oblique sneer from Sir TMungo,
as intimating the owner's excellence in his own mechanical craft.
"I am not ashamed of the workmanship, Sir Mungo," said the honest
citizen. -' They say, a good cook knows how to lick his own fingers; and,
methinks, it were unseemly that I, who have furnished half the cupboards
in broad Britain, should have my own covered with paltry pewter."
The blessing of the clergyman now left the guests at liberty to attack
what was placed before them; and the meal went forward with great decorum, until Aunt Judith, in farther recommendation of the- capon, assured
her company, that it was of a celebrated breed of poultry, which she had
herself brought from Scotland.
"Then, like some of his countrymen, madam," said the pitiless Sir
Mungo, not without a glance towards his landlord, " he has been well larded
in England."
"There are some others of his countrymen," answered Master IIeriot,
" to whom all the lard in England has not been able to render that good
offce."
Sir Mlungo sneered and reddened, the rest of the company laughed; and
the satirist, who had his reasons for not coming to extremity with Master
George, was silent for the rest of the dinner.
The dishes were exchanged for confections, and wine of the highest
quality and flavour; and Nigel saw the entertainments of the wealthiest
burgomtasters, which he had witnessed abroad, fairly outshone by the hospitality of a London citizen. Yet there was nothing ostentatious, or which
seemed inconsistent with the degree of an opulent burgher.
While the collation proceeded, Nigel, according to the good-breeding of
the time, addressed his discourse principally to MBrs. Judith; whom he
found to be a woman of a strong Scottish understanding, more inclined
towards the Puritans than was her brother George, (for in that relation she
stood to him, though he always called her aunt,) attached to him in the
strongest degree, and sedulously attentive to all his comforts. As the conversation of this good damle was neither lively nor fascinating, the young
lord naturally addressed himself next to the old horologer's very pretty
daugphter, who sat upon his left hand. From her, however, there was no
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