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44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | King William himsel, on his bell-metal horse at the Cross, is a popular preacher, Mr. Keelevin, compared to what I'll be.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The simplicity and sincerity with which this was said moved the kind-hearted lawyer at once to smile and sigh. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'There will, I hope, Mr. Walter,' said he, 'be no occasion to put any restraint like that upon yoursel; only it's my advice to you as a friend, to enter into no conversation with any one you do not well know, and to dress in your best clothes, and shave yoursel,--and in a' things demean and deport yoursel, like the laird o' Kittlestonheugh, and the representative of an ancient and respected family.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Oh, I can easily do that,' replied the natural; 'and I'll tak my father's ivory-headed cane, with the golden virl, and the silver e'e for a tassel, frae ahint the scrutoire, where it has ay stood since his death, and walk up and down the front of the house like a Glasgow magistrate.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'For the love o' Heaven, Mr. Walter,' exclaimed the lawyer, 'do nae sic mad-like action! |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The like o' that is a' they want.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'In whatna other way, then,' said Walter helplessly, 'can I behave like a gentleman, or a laird o' yird and stane, wi' the retinue o' an ancient pedigree like my father's Walkinshaws o' Kittlestonheugh?' ''Deed,' said Mr. Keelevin compassionately, 'I'm wae to say't--but I doot, I doot, it's past the compass o' my power to advise you.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I'm sure,' exclaimed Walter despairingly, 'that THE MAKER was ill aff for a turn when he took to the creating o' lawyers. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The deils are but prentice work compared to them. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | I dinna ken what to do, Mr. Keelevin--I wish that I was dead, but I'm no like to dee, as Jenny says in her wally-wae about her father's cow and auld Robin Gray.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Mr. Walter,' said his friend, after a pause of several minutes, 'go you to Mrs. Hypel, your grandmother, for the present, and I'll out to Grippy, and sift the meaning o' this visitation. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | When I have gathered what it means, we'll hae the better notion in what way we ought to fight with the foe.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I'll smash them like a forehammer,' exclaimed Walter, proudly. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I'll stand ahint a dike, and gie them a belter wi' stanes, till I hae na left the souls in their bodies--that's what I will,--if ye approve o't, Mr. Keelevin.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Weel, weel, Mr. Walter,' was the chagrined and grieved reply, 'we'll see to that when I return; but it's a terrible thing to think o' proving a man non compos mentis for the only sensible action he ever did in all his life. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Nevertheless, I will not let myself despond; and I have only for the present to exhort you to get yoursel in an order and fitness to appear as ye ought to be;--for really, Mr. Walter, ye alloo yoursel to gang sae like a divor, that I dinna wonder ye hae been ta'en notice o'. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | So I counsel you to mak yoursel trig, and no to play ony antics.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Walter assured him, that his advice would in every respect be followed; and, leaving the office, he went straight to the residence of his grandmother, while Mr. Keelevin, actuated at once by his humanity and professional duty, ordered his horse, and reached Grippy just as the advocate, Mr. Pitwinnoch, and George, were on the point of coming away, after waiting in vain for the return of Walter, whom Mr. Threeper was desirous of conversing with personally. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | CHAPTER LIV The triumvirate and Leddy Grippy were disconcerted at the appearance of Mr. Keelevin--for, at that moment, the result of Mr. Threeper's inquiries among the servants had put them all in the most agreeable and unanimous opinion with respect to the undoubted certainty of poor Watty's fatuity.--'We have just to walk over the course,' the advocate was saying; when George, happening to glance his eye towards the window, beheld the benevolent lawyer coming up the avenue. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Good Heavens!' said he, 'what can that old pest, Keelevin, want here?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Keelevin!' exclaimed the Leddy,--'that's a miracle to me. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | I think, gentlemen,' she added, 'ye had as weel gang away by the back door--for ye would na like, maybe, to be fashed wi' his confabbles. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | He's no a man, or I'm far mista'en, that kens muckle about the prejinketties o' the law, though he got the poor daft creature harl't through the difficulties o' the plea wi' my cousin Gilhaise, the Mauchlin maltster. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | I'm very sure, Mr. Threeper, he's no an acquaintance ye would like to cultivate, for he has na the talons o' an advocate versed in the devices o' the courts, but is a quirkie bodie, capable o' making law no law at a', according to the best o' my discernment, which, to be sure, in matters o' locutories and decreets, is but that o' a hamely household woman, so I would advise you to eschew his company at this present time.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Mr. Threeper, however, saw further into the lady's bosom than she suspected; and as it is never contrary, either to the interest of advocate or agent, to avoid having causes contested, especially when there is, as was in this case, substance enough to support a long and zealous litigation, that gentleman said,-- 'Then Mr. Keelevin is the agent who was employed in the former action?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Just sae,' resumed the Leddy, 'and |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | ye ken he could na, wi' ony regard to himsel, be art and part on this occasion.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Ah, but, madam,' replied the advocate, earnestly, 'he may be agent for the _fatuus_. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | It is, therefore, highly proper we should set out with a right understanding respecting that point; for, if the allegations are to be controverted, it is impossible to foresee what obstacles may be raised, although, in my opinion, from the evidence I have heard, there is no doubt that the fatuity of your son is a fact which cannot fail to be in the end substantiated. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Don't you think, Mr. Pitwinnoch, that we had as well see Mr. Keelevin?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Certainly,' said Gabriel. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | ' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | And, indeed, considering that, by the brief to the Sheriff, the Laird is a party, perhaps even though Mr. Keelevin should not have been employed, it would be but fair, and look well towards the world, were he instructed to take up this case on behalf of the _fatuus_. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | What say you, Mr. Walkinshaw?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | George did not well know what to say, but he replied, that, for many reasons, he was desirous the whole affair should be managed as privately as possible. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'If, however, the forms of the procedure require that an agent should act for Walter, I have no objection; at the same time, I do not think Mr. Keelevin the fittest person.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Heavens and earth!' exclaimed the Leddy, 'here's a respondenting and a hearing, and the Lord Ordinary and a' the fifteen Lords frae Embro' come to herry us out o' house and hall. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Gentlemen, an ye'll tak my advice, who, in my worthy father's time, had some inkling o' what the cost o' law pleas are, ye'll hae naething to do wi' either Keelevin, Gardevine, or ony other Vines in the shape o' pro forma agents; but settle the business wi' the Sheriff in a douce and discreet manner.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Mr. Threeper, looking towards Mr. Pitwinnoch and George, rapped his ivory snuff-box, rimmed and garnished with gold, and smiling, took a pinch as Mr. Keelevin was shown into the room. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Mr. George,' said Mr. Keelevin, sedately, after being seated; 'I am not come here to ask needless questions, but as Man of Business for your brother, it will be necessary to serve me with the proper notices as to what you intend.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Mr. Threeper again had recourse to his box, and Gabriel looked inquiringly at his client--who could with difficulty conceal his confusion, while the old lady, who had much more presence of mind, said,-- 'May I be sae bold, Mr. Keelevin, as to speer wha sent you here, at this time?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I came at Mr. Walter's own particular and personal request,' was the reply; and he turned at the same time towards the advocate, and added, 'That does not look very like fatuity.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'He never could hae done that o' his own free will. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | I should na wonder if the interloper, Bell Fatherlans, sent him--but I'll soon get to the bottom o't,' exclaimed the Leddy, and she immediately left the room in quest of Mrs. Charles, to inquire. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | During her absence, Mr. Keelevin resumed,-- 'It is not to be contested, Mr. Threeper,' for he knew the person of the advocate, 'that the Laird is a man o' singularities and oddities--we a' hae our foibles; but he got a gude education, and his schoolmaster bore testimony on a former occasion to his capacity; and if it can be shown that he does not manage his estate so advantageously as he might do, surely that can never be objected against him, when we every day see so many o' the wisest o' our lairds, and lords, and country gentry, falling to pigs and whistles, frae even-doun inattention or prodigality. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | I think it will be no easy thing to prove Mr. Walter incapable o' managing his own affairs, with his mother's assistance.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Ah! |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Mr. Keelevin, with his mother's assistance!' exclaimed the acute Mr. Threeper. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'It's time that he were out of leading-strings, and able to take care of himself, without his mother's assistance--if he's ever likely to do so.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | At this crisis, the Leddy returned into the room flushed with anger. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'It's just as I jealoused,' cried she; 'it's a' the wark o' my gude-dochter--it was her that sent him; black was the day she e'er came to stay here; many a sore heart in the watches o' the night hae I had sin syne, for my poor weak misled lad; for if he were left to the freedom o' his own will, he would na stand on stepping stanes, but, without scrupulosity, would send me, his mother, to crack sand, or mak my leaving where I could, after wastering a' my jointure.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | This speech made a strong impression on the minds of all the lawyers present. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Mr. Keelevin treasured it up, and said nothing. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Our friend Gabriel glanced the tail of his eye at the advocate, who, without affecting to have noticed the interested motive which the Leddy had betrayed, said to Mr. Keelevin,-- 'The case, sir, cannot but go before a jury; for, although the _fatuus_ be of a capacity to repeat any injunction which he may have received, and which is not inconsistent with a high degree of fatuity--it does not therefore follow that he is able to originate such motions or volitions of the mind as are requisite to constitute what may be denominated a legal modicum of understanding, the possession of which in Mr. Walter Walkinshaw is the object of the proposed inquiry to determine.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Very well, gentlemen, since such is the case,' replied Mr. Keelevin, rising, 'as I have undertaken the cause, it is unnecessary for us to hold any further conversation on the subject. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | I shall be prepared to protect my client.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | With these words he left the room, in some hope that possibly they might induce George still to stay proceedings. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | But the cupidity of George's own breast, the views and arguments of his counsel, and the animosity of his mother, all co-operated to weaken their effect; so that, in the course of as short a time as the forms of the judicature permitted, a jury was empannelled before the Sheriff, according to the tenor of the special brief of Chancery which had been procured for the purpose, and evidence as to the state of poor Watty's understanding and capacity regularly examined;--some account of which we shall proceed to lay before our readers, premising that Mr. Threeper opened the business in a speech replete with eloquence and ingenuity, and all that metaphysical refinement for which the Scottish bar was then, as at present, so justly celebrated. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Nothing, indeed, could be more subtile, or less applicable to the coarse and daily tear and wear of human concerns, than his definition of what constituted 'the minimum of understanding, or of reason, or of mental faculty in general, which the law, in its wisdom, required to be enjoyed by every individual claiming to exercise the functions that belong to man, as a subject, a citizen, a husband, a father, a master, a servant,--in one word, to enable him to execute those different essential duties, which every gentleman of the jury so well knew, and so laudably, so respectably, and so meritoriously performed. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | '--But we regret that our limits do not allow us to enter upon the subject; and the more so, as it could not fail to prove highly interesting to our fair readers, in whose opinion the eloquence of the Parliament House of Edinburgh, no doubt, possesses many charming touches of sentiment, and amiable pathetic graces. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | CHAPTER LV The first witness examined was Jenny Purdie, servant to Mr. George Walkinshaw. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | She had previously been several years in the service of his father, and is the same who, as our readers will perhaps recollect, contrived so femininely to seduce half-a-crown from the pocket of the old man, when she brought him the news of the birth of his son's twin daughters. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'What is your opinion of Mr. Walter Walkinshaw?' inquired Mr. Threeper. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | ''Deed, sir,' said Jenny, 'I hae but a sma' opinion o' him--he's a daft man, and has been sae a' his days.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | ' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | But what do you mean by a daft man?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I thought every body kent what a daft man is,' replied Jenny; 'he's just silly, and tavert, and heedless, and o' an inclination to swattle in the dirt like a grumphie.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Well, but do you mean to say,' interrupted the advocate, 'that, to your knowledge, he has been daft all his days?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I never kent him ony better.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'But you have not known him all his days--therefore, how can you say he has been daft all his days?--He might have been wise enough when you did not know him.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I dinna think it,' said Jenny;--'I dinna think it was ever in him to be wise--he's no o' a nature to be wise.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'What do you mean by a nature?--Explain yourself.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I canna explain mysel ony better,' was the answer; 'only I ken that a cat's no a dog, nor o' a nature to be,--and so the Laird could ne'er be a man o' sense.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Very ingenious, indeed,' said Mr. Threeper; 'and I am sure the gentlemen of the jury must be satisfied that it is not possible to give a clearer--a more distinctive impression of the deficiency of Mr. Walkinshaw's capacity, than has been given by this simple and innocent country girl.--But, Jenny, can you tell us of any instance of his daftness?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'I can tell you o' naething but the sic-like about him.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Cannot you remember any thing he said or did on any particular day?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'O aye, atweel I wat I can do that--on the vera day when I gaed hame, frae my service at the Grippy to Mr. George's, the sheep were sheared, and Mr. Watty said they were made sae naked, it was a shame to see them, and took one o' his mother's flannen polonies, to mak a hap to Mall Loup-the-Dike, the auld ewe, for decency.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Jenny was then cross-questioned by Mr. Queerie, the able and intelligent advocate employed for the defence by Mr. Keelevin; but her evidence was none shaken, nor did it appear that her master had in any way influenced her. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | Before she left the box, the Sheriff said jocularly,-- 'I'm sure, from your account, Jenny, that Mr. Walkinshaw's no a man ye would like to marry?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'There's no saying,' replied Jenny,--'the Kittlestonheugh's a braw estate; and mony a better born than me has been blithe to put up wi' houses and lan's, though wit and worth were baith wanting.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The first witness thus came off with considerable eclat, and indeed gained the love and affections, it is said, of one of the jurors, an old bien carle, a bonnet-laird, to whom she was, in the course of a short time after, married. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The next witness was Mr. Mordecai Saxheere, preses and founder of that renowned focus of sosherie the Yarn Club, which held its periodical libations of the vintage of the colonies in the buxom Widow Sheid's tavern, in Sour-Milk John's Land, a stately pile that still lifts its lofty head in the Trongate. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | He was an elderly, trim, smooth, Quaker-faced gentleman, dressed in drab, with spacious buckram-lined skirts, that came round on his knees, giving to the general outline of his figure the appearance of a cone supported on legs in white worsted hose. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | He wore a highly powdered horse-hair wig, with a long queue; buckles at the knees and in his shoes, presenting, in the collective attributes of his dress and appearance, a respect-bespeaking epitome of competency, good-eating, honesty, and self-conceit. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | He was one of several gentlemen whom the long-forecasting George had carried with him to Grippy on those occasions when he was desirous to provide witnesses, to be available when the era should arrive that had now come to pass. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Well, Mr. Saxheere,' said the Edinburgh advocate, 'what have you to say with respect to the state of Mr. Walter Walkinshaw?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Sir,' replied the preses of the Yarn Club, giving that sort of congratulatory smack with which he was in the practice of swallowing and sending round the dram that crowned the substantials, and was herald to what were called the liquidities of the club,--'Sir,' said Mordecai Saxheere, 'I have been in no terms of intromission with Mr. Walkinshaw of Grippy, 'cept and except in the way of visitation; and on those occasions I always found him of a demeanour more sportive to others than congenial.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'You are a merchant, I believe, Mr. Saxheere,' said Mr. Threeper; 'you have your shop in the High Street, near the Cross. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | On the market day you keep a bottle of whisky and a glass on the counter, from which, as I understand, you are in the practice of giving your customers a dram--first preeing or smelling the liquor yourself, and then handing it to them.--Now, I would ask you, if Mr. Walkinshaw were to come to your shop on the market day, would you deal with him?--would you, on your oath, smell the glass, and then hand it across the counter, to be by him drunk off?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The advocate intended this as a display of his intimate knowledge of the local habits and usages of Glasgow, though himself but an Edinburgh man,--in order to amaze the natives by his cleverness. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Sir,' replied Mr. Saxheere, again repeating his habitual congratulatory smack, 'much would rely on the purpose for which he came to custom. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | If he offered me yarn for sale, there could be no opponency on my side to give him the fair price of the day; but, if he wanted to buy, I might undergo some constipation of thought before compliance.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'The doubtful credit of any wiser person might produce the same astringency,' said the advocate, slyly. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'No doubt it would,' replied the preses of the Yarn Club; 'but the predicament of the Laird of Grippy would na be under that denominator, but because I would have a suspection of him in the way of judgement and sensibility.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Then he is not a man that you would think it safe to trade with as a customer?' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | said the Sheriff, desirous of putting an end to his prosing. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | 'Just so, sir,' replied Mordecai; 'for, though it might be safe in the way of advantage, I could not think myself, in the way of character, free from an imputation, were I to intromit with him.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | It was not deemed expedient to cross-question this witness; and another was called, a celebrated Professor of Mathematics in the University, the founder and preses of a club, called the 'Anderson Summer Saturday's.' |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The scientific attainments and abstract genius of this distinguished person were undisputed; but his simplicity of character and absence of mind were no less remarkable. |
44,573 | The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy | The object that George probably had in view in taking him, as an occasional visitor, to see his brother, was, perhaps, to qualify the Professor to bear testimony to the arithmetical incapacity of Walter; and certainly the Professor had always found him sufficiently incapable to have warranted him to give the most decisive evidence on that head; but a circumstance had occurred at the last visit, which came out in the course of the investigation, by which it would appear the opinion of the learned mathematician was greatly shaken. |
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