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Chapter 2 On the forenoon of the second day, coming to the top of a hill, I saw all the country fall away before me down to the sea; and in the midst of this descent, on a long ridge, the city of Edinburgh smoking like a kiln. There was a flag upon the castle, and ships moving or lying anchored in the firth; both of which, for as far away as they were, I could distinguish clearly; and both brought my country heart into my mouth. Presently after, I came by a house where a shepherd lived, and got a rough direction for the neighbourhood of Cramond; and so, from one to another, worked my way to the westward of the capital by Colinton, till I came out upon the Glasgow road. And there, to my great pleasure and wonder, I beheld a regiment marching to the fifes, every foot in time; an old red-faced general on a grey horse at the one end, and at the other the company of Grenadiers, with their Popes-hats. The pride of life seemed to mount into my brain at the sight of the red coats and the hearing of that merry music. A little farther on, and I was told I was in Cramond parish, and began to substitute in my inquiries the name of the house of Shaws. It was a word that seemed to surprise those of whom I sought my way. At first I thought the plainness of my appearance, in my country habit, and that all dusty from the road, consorted ill with the greatness of the place to which I was bound. But after two, or maybe three, had given me the same look and the same answer, I began to take it in my head there was something strange about the Shaws itself. The better to set this fear at rest, I changed the form of my inquiries; and spying an honest fellow coming along a lane on the shaft of his cart, I asked him if he had ever heard tell of a house they called the house of Shaws. He stopped his cart and looked at me, like the others. Ay said he. What for? Its a great house? I asked. Doubtless, says he. The house is a big, muckle house. Ay, said I, but the folk that are in it? Folk? cried he. Are ye daft? Theres nae folk thereto call folk. What? say I; not Mr. Ebenezer? Ou, ay says the man; theres the laird, to be sure, if its him youre wanting. Whatll like be your business, mannie? I was led to think that I would get a situation, I said, looking as modest as I could. What? cries the carter, in so sharp a note that his very horse started; and then, Well, mannie, he added, its nane of my affairs; but ye seem a decent-spoken lad; and if yell take a word from me, yell keep clear of the Shaws. The next person I came across was a dapper little man in a beautiful white wig, whom I saw to be a barber on his rounds; and knowing well that barbers were great gossips, I asked him plainly what sort of a man was Mr. Balfour of the Shaws. Hoot, hoot, hoot, said the barber, nae kind of a man, nae kind of a man at all; and began to ask me very shrewdly what my business was; but I was more than a match for him at that, and he went on to his next customer no wiser than he came. I cannot well describe the blow this dealt to my illusions. The more indistinct the accusations were, the less I liked them, for they left the wider field to fancy. What kind of a great house was this, that all the |
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