CRUIKSHANK AT HOME.

WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE.

YE maun have heard of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of that Ilk, who lived in these parts before the dear years. The country will lang mind him; and our fathers used to draw breath thick if ever they heard him named. He was out wi' the Hielandmen in Montrose's time; and again he Iwas in the hills wi' Glencairn in the saxteen hundred and fifty-twa; and sae when King Charles the Second came in, wha was in sic favour as the Laird of Redgauntlet? He was knighted VOL. III

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at Lonon court, wi' the King's ain sword; and being a red-hot prelatist, he came down here, rampanging like a lion, with commissions of lieutenancy, and of lunacy, for what I ken, to put down a' the Whigs and Covenanters in the country. Wild wark they made of it; for the Whigs were as dour as the Cavaliers were fierce, and it was which should tire the other. Redgauntlet was a' for the strong hand; and his name is kenn'd as wide in the country as Claverhouse's or Tam Dalyell's. Glen, nor dargle, nor mountain, nor cave, could hide the puir hill-folk when Redgauntlet was out with bugle and bloodhound after them, as if they had been sae mony deer. And troth when they fand them, they didna mak muckle mair ceremony than a Hie

landman wi' a roe-buck.-It was just,

"Will ye

tak the test?"—if not, "Make ready-present

fire!"-and there lay the recusant.

Far and wide was Sir Robert hated and feared.

Men thought he had direct compact with Satanthat he was proof against steel-and that bullets happed off his buff-coat like hail stanes from a hearth-that he had a mear that would turn a hare on the side of Carrifra-gawns-and muckle to the same purpose, of whilk mair anon. The best blessing they wared on him was, "De'il scowp wi' Redgauntlet!" He wasna a bad master to his ain folk though, and was weel aneugh liked by his tenants; and as for the lackies and troopers that raid out wi' him to the persecutions, as the Whigs ca'ad these killing times, they wad hae drunken themselves blind to his ealth at ony time.

Now ye are to ken that my gudesire lived on Redgauntlet's grund-they ca' the place PrimroseKnowe. We had lived on the grund, and under the Redgauntlets, since the riding davs, and lang before. It was a pleasant bit; and I think the air is callerer and fresher there than ony where

else in the country. It's a' deserted now; and I sat on the broken door-cheek three days since, and was glad I couldna see the plight the place was in; but that's a' wide o' the mark. There dwelt my gudesire, Steenie Steenson; a rambling, rattling chiel' he had been in his young days, and could play weel on the pipes; he was famous at

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Hoopers and Girders"—a' Cumberland couldna touch him at "Jockie Lattin"-and he had the finest finger for the back-lill between Berwick and Carlisle. The like o' Steenie wasna the sort they make Whigs o'. And so he became a Tory, as they ca' it, which now we ca' Jacobites, just out of a kind of needcessity, that he might belang to some side or other. He had nae ill will to the Whig bodies, and likedna to see the blude rin, though, being obliged to follow Sir Robert in hunting and hosting, watching and warding, he saw muckle mischief, and maybe did some, tha⭑ he couldna avoid.

Now Steenie was a kind of favourite with his

master, and kenn'd a' the folks about the castle, and was often sent for to play the pipes when they were in their merriment. Auld Dougal MacCallum, the butler, that had followed Sir Robert through gude and ill, thick and thin, pool and stream, was specially fond of the pipes, and aye gae my gudesire his gude word wi' the Laird, for Dougal could turn his master round his finger.

Weel, round came the Revolution, and it had like to have broken the hearts baith of Dougal and his master. But the change was not a'thegither sae great as they feared, and other folk thought for. The Whigs made an unco crawing what they wad do with their auld enemies, and in special wi' Sir Robert Redgauntlet. But there were ower mony great folks dipped in the same doings, to make a spick and span new warld. So Parliament passed it a' ower easy; and Sir Ro