'We cannot rival the luxuries of your English table, Captain Waverley, or
give you the epulae lautiores of Waverley-Honour. I say epulae rather
than prandium, because the latter phrase is popular: epulae ad senatum,
prandium vero ad populum attinet, says Suetonius Tranquillus. But I trust
ye will applaud my Bourdeaux; c'est des deux oreilles, as Captain Vinsauf
used to say; vinum primae notae, the principal of Saint Andrews
denominated it. And, once more, Captain Waverley, right glad am I that ye
are here to drink the best my cellar can make forthcoming.'
This speech, with the necessary interjectional answers, continued from
the lower alley where they met up to the door of the house, where four or
five servants in old-fashioned liveries, headed by Alexander Saunderson,
the butler, who now bore no token of the sable stains of the garden,
received them in grand COSTUME,
In an old hall hung round with pikes and with bows,
With old bucklers and corslets that had borne many shrewd blows.
With much ceremony, and still more real kindness, the Baron, without
stopping in any intermediate apartment, conducted his guest through
several into the great dining parlour, wainscotted with black oak, and
hung round with the pictures of his ancestry, where a table was set forth
in form for six persons, and an old-fashioned beaufet displayed all the
ancient and massive plate of the Bradwardine family.
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