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The Ayrshire Legatees

J >> John Galt >> The Ayrshire Legatees



This etext was prepared
by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk





The Ayrshire Legatees




CHAPTER I--THE DEPARTURE



On New Year's day Dr. Pringle received a letter from India,
informing him that his cousin, Colonel Armour, had died at Hydrabad,
and left him his residuary legatee. The same post brought other
letters on the same subject from the agent of the deceased in
London, by which it was evident to the whole family that no time
should be lost in looking after their interests in the hands of such
brief and abrupt correspondents. "To say the least of it," as the
Doctor himself sedately remarked, "considering the greatness of the
forth-coming property, Messieurs Richard Argent and Company, of New
Broad Street, might have given a notion as to the particulars of the
residue." It was therefore determined that, as soon as the
requisite arrangements could be made, the Doctor and Mrs. Pringle
should set out for the metropolis, to obtain a speedy settlement
with the agents, and, as Rachel had now, to use an expression of her
mother's, "a prospect before her," that she also should accompany
them: Andrew, who had just been called to the Bar, and who had come
to the manse to spend a few days after attaining that distinction,
modestly suggested, that, considering the various professional
points which might be involved in the objects of his father's
journey, and considering also the retired life which his father had
led in the rural village of Garnock, it might be of importance to
have the advantage of legal advice.

Mrs. Pringle interrupted this harangue, by saying, "We see what you
would be at, Andrew; ye're just wanting to come with us, and on this
occasion I'm no for making step-bairns, so we'll a' gang thegither."

The Doctor had been for many years the incumbent of Garnock, which
is pleasantly situated between Irvine and Kilwinning, and, on
account of the benevolence of his disposition, was much beloved by
his parishioners. Some of the pawkie among them used indeed to say,
in answer to the godly of Kilmarnock, and other admirers of the late
great John Russel, of that formerly orthodox town, by whom Dr.
Pringle's powers as a preacher were held in no particular
estimation,--"He kens our pu'pit's frail, and spar'st to save outlay
to the heritors." As for Mrs. Pringle, there is not such another
minister's wife, both for economy and management, within the
jurisdiction of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and to this fact the
following letter to Miss Mally Glencairn, a maiden lady residing in
the Kirkgate of Irvine, a street that has been likened unto the
Kingdom of Heaven, where there is neither marriage nor giving in
marriage, will abundantly testify.


LETTER I


Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn--GARNOCK MANSE.

Dear Miss Mally--The Doctor has had extraordinar news from India and
London, where we are all going, as soon as me and Rachel can get
ourselves in order, so I beg you will go to Bailie Delap's shop, and
get swatches of his best black bombaseen, and crape, and muslin, and
bring them over to the manse the morn's morning. If you cannot come
yourself, and the day should be wat, send Nanny Eydent, the mantua-
maker, with them; you'll be sure to send Nanny, onyhow, and I
requeesht that, on this okasion, ye'll get the very best the Bailie
has, and I'll tell you all about it when you come. You will get,
likewise, swatches of mourning print, with the lowest prices. I'll
no be so particular about them, as they are for the servan lasses,
and there's no need, for all the greatness of God's gifts, that we
should be wasterful. Let Mrs. Glibbans know, that the Doctor's
second cousin, the colonel, that was in the East Indies, is no
more;--I am sure she will sympatheese with our loss on this
melancholy okasion. Tell her, as I'll no be out till our mournings
are made, I would take it kind if she would come over and eate a bit
of dinner on Sunday. The Doctor will no preach himself, but there's
to be an excellent young man, an acquaintance of Andrew's, that has
the repute of being both sound and hellaquaint. But no more at
present, and looking for you and Nanny Eydent, with the swatches,--I
am, dear Miss Mally, your sinsare friend,

JANET PRINGLE.


The Doctor being of opinion that, until they had something in hand
from the legacy, they should walk in the paths of moderation, it was
resolved to proceed by the coach from Irvine to Greenock, there
embark in a steam-boat for Glasgow, and, crossing the country to
Edinburgh, take their passage at Leith in one of the smacks for
London. But we must let the parties speak for themselves.


LETTER II


Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod--GREENOCK.

My Dear Isabella--I know not why the dejection with which I parted
from you still hangs upon my heart, and grows heavier as I am drawn
farther and farther away. The uncertainty of the future--the
dangers of the sea--all combine to sadden my too sensitive spirit.
Still, however, I will exert myself, and try to give you some
account of our momentous journey.

The morning on which we bade farewell for a time--alas! it was to me
as if for ever, to my native shades of Garnock--the weather was
cold, bleak, and boisterous, and the waves came rolling in majestic
fury towards the shore, when we arrived at the Tontine Inn of
Ardrossan. What a monument has the late Earl of Eglinton left there
of his public spirit! It should embalm his memory in the hearts of
future ages, as I doubt not but in time Ardrossan will become a
grand emporium; but the people of Saltcoats, a sordid race, complain
that it will be their ruin; and the Paisley subscribers to his
lordship's canal grow pale when they think of profit.

The road, after leaving Ardrossan, lies along the shore. The blast
came dark from the waters, and the clouds lay piled in every form of
grandeur on the lofty peaks of Arran. The view on the right hand is
limited to the foot of a range of abrupt mean hills, and on the left
it meets the sea--as we were obliged to keep the glasses up, our
drive for several miles was objectless and dreary. When we had
ascended a hill, leaving Kilbride on the left, we passed under the
walls of an ancient tower. What delightful ideas are associated
with the sight of such venerable remains of antiquity!

Leaving that lofty relic of our warlike ancestors, we descended
again towards the shore. On the one side lay the Cumbra Islands,
and Bute, dear to departed royalty. Afar beyond them, in the hoary
magnificence of nature, rise the mountains of Argyllshire; the
cairns, as my brother says, of a former world. On the other side of
the road, we saw the cloistered ruins of the religious house of
Southenan, a nunnery in those days of romantic adventure, when to
live was to enjoy a poetical element. In such a sweet sequestered
retreat, how much more pleasing to the soul it would have been, for
you and I, like two captive birds in one cage, to have sung away our
hours in innocence, than for me to be thus torn from you by fate,
and all on account of that mercenary legacy, perchance the spoils of
some unfortunate Hindoo Rajah!

At Largs we halted to change horses, and saw the barrows of those
who fell in the great battle. We then continued our journey along
the foot of stupendous precipices; and high, sublime, and darkened
with the shadow of antiquity, we saw, upon its lofty station, the
ancient Castle of Skelmorlie, where the Montgomeries of other days
held their gorgeous banquets, and that brave knight who fell at
Chevy-Chace came pricking forth on his milk-white steed, as Sir
Walter Scott would have described him. But the age of chivalry is
past, and the glory of Europe departed for ever!

When we crossed the stream that divides the counties of Ayr and
Renfrew, we beheld, in all the apart and consequentiality of pride,
the house of Kelly overlooking the social villas of Wemyss Bay. My
brother compared it to a sugar hogshead, and them to cotton-bags;
for the lofty thane of Kelly is but a West India planter, and the
inhabitants of the villas on the shore are Glasgow manufacturers.

To this succeeded a dull drive of about two miles, and then at once
we entered the pretty village of Inverkip. A slight snow-shower had
given to the landscape a sort of copperplate effect, but still the
forms of things, though but sketched, as it were, with China ink,
were calculated to produce interesting impressions. After
ascending, by a gentle acclivity, into a picturesque and romantic
pass, we entered a spacious valley, and, in the course of little
more than half an hour, reached this town; the largest, the most
populous, and the most superb that I have yet seen. But what are
all its warehouses, ships, and smell of tar, and other odoriferous
circumstances of fishery and the sea, compared with the green
swelling hills, the fragrant bean-fields, and the peaceful groves of
my native Garnock!

The people of this town are a very busy and clever race, but much
given to litigation. My brother says, that they are the greatest
benefactors to the Outer House, and that their lawsuits are the most
amusing and profitable before the courts, being less for the purpose
of determining what is right than what is lawful. The chambermaid
of the inn where we lodge pointed out to me, on the opposite side of
the street, a magnificent edifice erected for balls; but the
subscribers have resolved not to allow any dancing till it is
determined by the Court of Session to whom the seats and chairs
belong, as they were brought from another house where the assemblies
were formerly held. I have heard a lawsuit compared to a country-
dance, in which, after a great bustle and regular confusion, the
parties stand still, all tired, just on the spot where they began;
but this is the first time that the judges of the land have been
called on to decide when a dance may begin.

We arrived too late for the steam-boat, and are obliged to wait till
Monday morning; but to-morrow we shall go to church, where I expect
to see what sort of creatures the beaux are. The Greenock ladies
have a great name for beauty, but those that I have seen are perfect
frights. Such of the gentlemen as I have observed passing the
windows of the inn may do, but I declare the ladies have nothing of
which any woman ought to be proud. Had we known that we ran a risk
of not getting a steam-boat, my mother would have provided an
introductory letter or two from some of her Irvine friends; but here
we are almost entire strangers: my father, however, is acquainted
with one of the magistrates, and has gone to see him. I hope he
will be civil enough to ask us to his house, for an inn is a
shocking place to live in, and my mother is terrified at the
expense. My brother, however, has great confidence in our
prospects, and orders and directs with a high hand. But my paper is
full, and I am compelled to conclude with scarcely room to say how
affectionately I am yours,

RACHEL PRINGLE.


LETTER III


The Rev. Dr Pringle to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and Session-
Clerk, Garnock--EDINBURGH.

Dear Sir--We have got this length through many difficulties, both in
the travel by land to, and by sea and land from Greenock, where we
were obligated, by reason of no conveyance, to stop the Sabbath, but
not without edification; for we went to hear Dr. Drystour in the
forenoon, who had a most weighty sermon on the tenth chapter of
Nehemiah. He is surely a great orthodox divine, but rather costive
in his delivery. In the afternoon we heard a correct moral lecture
on good works, in another church, from Dr. Eastlight--a plain man,
with a genteel congregation. The same night we took supper with a
wealthy family, where we had much pleasant communion together,
although the bringing in of the toddy-bowl after supper is a fashion
that has a tendency to lengthen the sederunt to unseasonable hours.

On the following morning, by the break of day, we took shipping in
the steam-boat for Glasgow. I had misgivings about the engine,
which is really a thing of great docility; but saving my concern for
the boiler, we all found the place surprising comfortable. The day
was bleak and cold; but we had a good fire in a carron grate in the
middle of the floor, and books to read, so that both body and mind
are therein provided for.

Among the books, I fell in with a History of the Rebellion, anent
the hand that an English gentleman of the name of Waverley had in
it. I was grieved that I had not time to read it through, for it
was wonderful interesting, and far more particular, in many points,
than any other account of that affair I have yet met with; but it's
no so friendly to Protestant principles as I could have wished.
However, if I get my legacy well settled, I will buy the book, and
lend it to you on my return, please God, to the manse.

We were put on shore at Glasgow by breakfast-time, and there we
tarried all day, as I had a power of attorney to get from Miss Jenny
Macbride, my cousin, to whom the colonel left the thousand pound
legacy. Miss Jenny thought the legacy should have been more, and
made some obstacle to signing the power; but both her lawyer and
Andrew Pringle, my son, convinced her, that, as it was specified in
the testament, she could not help it by standing out; so at long and
last Miss Jenny was persuaded to put her name to the paper.

Next day we all four got into a fly coach, and, without damage or
detriment, reached this city in good time for dinner in Macgregor's
hotel, a remarkable decent inn, next door to one Mr. Blackwood, a
civil and discreet man in the bookselling line.

Really the changes in Edinburgh since I was here, thirty years ago,
are not to be told. I am confounded; for although I have both heard
and read of the New Town in the Edinburgh Advertiser, and the Scots
Magazine, I had no notion of what has come to pass. It's surprising
to think wherein the decay of the nation is; for at Greenock I saw
nothing but shipping and building; at Glasgow, streets spreading as
if they were one of the branches of cotton-spinning; and here, the
houses grown up as if they were sown in the seed-time with the corn,
by a drill-machine, or dibbled in rigs and furrows like beans and
potatoes.

To-morrow, God willing, we embark in a smack at Leith, so that you
will not hear from me again till it please Him to take us in the
hollow of His hand to London. In the meantime, I have only to add,
that, when the Session meets, I wish you would speak to the elders,
particularly to Mr. Craig, no to be overly hard on that poor donsie
thing, Meg Milliken, about her bairn; and tell Tam Glen, the father
o't, from me, that it would have been a sore heart to that pious
woman, his mother, had she been living, to have witnessed such a
thing; and therefore I hope and trust, he will yet confess a fault,
and own Meg for his wife, though she is but something of a tawpie.
However, you need not diminish her to Tam. I hope Mr. Snodgrass
will give as much satisfaction to the parish as can reasonably be
expected in my absence; and I remain, dear sir, your friend and
pastor,

ZACHARIAH PRINGLE.


Mr. Micklewham received the Doctor's letter about an hour before the
Session met on the case of Tam Glen and Meg Milliken, and took it
with him to the session-house, to read it to the elders before going
into the investigation. Such a long and particular letter from the
Doctor was, as they all justly remarked, kind and dutiful to his
people, and a great pleasure to them.

Mr. Daff observed, "Truly the Doctor's a vera funny man, and
wonderfu' jocose about the toddy-bowl." But Mr. Craig said, that
"sic a thing on the Lord's night gi'es me no pleasure; and I am for
setting my face against Waverley's History of the Rebellion, whilk I
hae heard spoken of among the ungodly, both at Kilwinning and Dalry;
and if it has no respect to Protestant principles, I doubt it's but
another dose o' the radical poison in a new guise." Mr. Icenor,
however, thought that "the observe on the great Doctor Drystour was
very edifying; and that they should see about getting him to help at
the summer Occasion." {1}

While they were thus reviewing, in their way, the first epistle of
the Doctor, the betherel came in to say that Meg and Tam were at the
door. "Oh, man," said Mr. Daff, slyly, "ye shouldna hae left them
at the door by themselves." Mr. Craig looked at him austerely, and
muttered something about the growing immorality of this backsliding
age; but before the smoke of his indignation had kindled into
eloquence, the delinquents were admitted. However, as we have
nothing to do with the business, we shall leave them to their own
deliberations.



CHAPTER II--THE VOYAGE



On the fourteenth day after the departure of the family from the
manse, the Rev. Mr. Charles Snodgrass, who was appointed to
officiate during the absence of the Doctor, received the following
letter from his old chum, Mr. Andrew Pringle. It would appear that
the young advocate is not so solid in the head as some of his elder
brethren at the Bar; and therefore many of his flights and
observations must be taken with an allowance on the score of his
youth.


LETTER IV


Andrew Pringle, Esq., Advocate, to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass--
LONDON.

My Dear Friend--We have at last reached London, after a stormy
passage of seven days. The accommodation in the smacks looks
extremely inviting in port, and in fine weather, I doubt not, is
comfortable, even at sea; but in February, and in such visitations
of the powers of the air as we have endured, a balloon must be a far
better vehicle than all the vessels that have been constructed for
passengers since the time of Noah. In the first place, the waves of
the atmosphere cannot be so dangerous as those of the ocean, being
but "thin air"; and I am sure they are not so disagreeable; then the
speed of the balloon is so much greater,--and it would puzzle
Professor Leslie to demonstrate that its motions are more unsteady;
besides, who ever heard of sea-sickness in a balloon? the
consideration of which alone would, to any reasonable person
actually suffering under the pains of that calamity, be deemed more
than an equivalent for all the little fractional difference of
danger between the two modes of travelling. I shall henceforth
regard it as a fine characteristic trait of our national prudence,
that, in their journies to France and Flanders, the Scottish witches
always went by air on broom-sticks and benweeds, instead of
venturing by water in sieves, like those of England. But the
English are under the influence of a maritime genius.

When we had got as far up the Thames as Gravesend, the wind and tide
came against us, so that the vessel was obliged to anchor, and I
availed myself of the circumstance, to induce the family to
disembark and go to London by LAND; and I esteem it a fortunate
circumstance that we did so, the day, for the season, being
uncommonly fine. After we had taken some refreshment, I procured
places in a stage-coach for my mother and sister, and, with the
Doctor, mounted myself on the outside. My father's old-fashioned
notions boggled a little at first to this arrangement, which he
thought somewhat derogatory to his ministerial dignity; but his
scruples were in the end overruled.

The country in this season is, of course, seen to disadvantage, but
still it exhibits beauty enough to convince us what England must be
when in leaf. The old gentleman's admiration of the increasing
signs of what he called civilisation, as we approached London,
became quite eloquent; but the first view of the city from
Blackheath (which, by the bye, is a fine common, surrounded with
villas and handsome houses) overpowered his faculties, and I shall
never forget the impression it made on myself. The sun was declined
towards the horizon; vast masses of dark low-hung clouds were
mingled with the smoky canopy, and the dome of St. Paul's, like the
enormous idol of some terrible deity, throned amidst the smoke of
sacrifices and magnificence, darkness, and mystery, presented
altogether an object of vast sublimity. I felt touched with
reverence, as if I was indeed approaching the city of THE HUMAN
POWERS.

The distant view of Edinburgh is picturesque and romantic, but it
affects a lower class of our associations. It is, compared to that
of London, what the poem of the Seasons is with respect to Paradise
Lost--the castellated descriptions of Walter Scott to the Darkness
of Byron--the Sabbath of Grahame to the Robbers of Schiller. In the
approach to Edinburgh, leisure and cheerfulness are on the road;
large spaces of rural and pastoral nature are spread openly around,
and mountains, and seas, and headlands, and vessels passing beyond
them, going like those that die, we know not whither, while the sun
is bright on their sails, and hope with them; but, in coming to this
Babylon, there is an eager haste and a hurrying on from all
quarters, towards that stupendous pile of gloom, through which no
eye can penetrate; an unceasing sound, like the enginery of an
earthquake at work, rolls from the heart of that profound and
indefinable obscurity--sometimes a faint and yellow beam of the sun
strikes here and there on the vast expanse of edifices; and
churches, and holy asylums, are dimly seen lifting up their
countless steeples and spires, like so many lightning rods to avert
the wrath of Heaven.

The entrance to Edinburgh also awakens feelings of a more pleasing
character. The rugged veteran aspect of the Old Town is agreeably
contrasted with the bright smooth forehead of the New, and there is
not such an overwhelming torrent of animal life, as to make you
pause before venturing to stem it; the noises are not so deafening,
and the occasional sound of a ballad-singer, or a Highland piper,
varies and enriches the discords; but here, a multitudinous
assemblage of harsh alarms, of selfish contentions, and of furious
carriages, driven by a fierce and insolent race, shatter the very
hearing, till you partake of the activity with which all seem as
much possessed as if a general apprehension prevailed, that the
great clock of Time would strike the doom-hour before their tasks
were done. But I must stop, for the postman with his bell, like the
betherel of some ancient "borough's town" summoning to a burial, is
in the street, and warns me to conclude.

- Yours, ANDREW PRINGLE.


LETTER V


The Rev. Dr. Pringle to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and Session-
Clerk, Garnock

LONDON, 49 NORFOLK STREET, STRAND.

Dear Sir--On the first Sunday forthcoming after the receiving
hereof, you will not fail to recollect in the remembering prayer,
that we return thanks for our safe arrival in London, after a
dangerous voyage. Well, indeed, is it ordained that we should pray
for those who go down to the sea in ships, and do business on the
great deep; for what me and mine have come through is unspeakable,
and the hand of Providence was visibly manifested.

On the day of our embarkation at Leith, a fair wind took us onward
at a blithe rate for some time; but in the course of that night the
bridle of the tempest was slackened, and the curb of the billows
loosened, and the ship reeled to and fro like a drunken man, and no
one could stand therein. My wife and daughter lay at the point of
death; Andrew Pringle, my son, also was prostrated with the grievous
affliction; and the very soul within me was as if it would have been
cast out of the body.

On the following day the storm abated, and the wind blew favourable;
but towards the heel of the evening it again came vehement, and
there was no help unto our distress. About midnight, however, it
pleased HIM, whose breath is the tempest, to be more sparing with
the whip of His displeasure on our poor bark, as she hirpled on in
her toilsome journey through the waters; and I was enabled, through
His strength, to lift my head from the pillow of sickness, and
ascend the deck, where I thought of Noah looking out of the window
in the ark, upon the face of the desolate flood, and of Peter
walking on the sea; and I said to myself, it matters not where we
are, for we can be in no place where Jehovah is not there likewise,
whether it be on the waves of the ocean, or the mountain tops, or in
the valley and shadow of death.

The third day the wind came contrary, and in the fourth, and the
fifth, and the sixth, we were also sorely buffeted; but on the night
of the sixth we entered the mouth of the river Thames, and on the
morning of the seventh day of our departure, we cast anchor near a
town called Gravesend, where, to our exceeding great joy, it pleased
Him, in whom alone there is salvation, to allow us once more to put
our foot on the dry land.

When we had partaken of a repast, the first blessed with the
blessing of an appetite, from the day of our leaving our native
land, we got two vacancies in a stage-coach for my wife and
daughter; but with Andrew Pringle, my son, I was obligated to mount
aloft on the outside. I had some scruple of conscience about this,
for I was afraid of my decorum. I met, however, with nothing but
the height of discretion from the other outside passengers, although
I jealoused that one of them was a light woman. Really I had no
notion that the English were so civilised; they were so well bred,
and the very duddiest of them spoke such a fine style of language,
that when I looked around on the country, I thought myself in the
land of Canaan. But it's extraordinary what a power of drink the
coachmen drink, stopping and going into every change-house, and yet
behaving themselves with the greatest sobriety. And then they are
all so well dressed, which is no doubt owing to the poor rates. I
am thinking, however, that for all they cry against them, the poor
rates are but a small evil, since they keep the poor folk in such
food and raiment, and out of the temptations to thievery; indeed,
such a thing as a common beggar is not to be seen in this land,
excepting here and there a sorner or a ne'er-do-weel.

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