'--
As such he described them by person and name,
They enter'd, and dinner was served as they came.
CHAPTER XI
THE BANQUET
The entertainment was ample and handsome, according to the Scotch ideas
of the period, and the guests did great honour to it. The Baron eat like
a famished soldier, the Laird of Balmawhapple like a sportsman, Bullsegg
of Killancureit like a farmer, Waverley himself like a traveller, and
Bailie Macwheeble like all four together; though, either out of more
respect, or in order to preserve that proper declination of person which
showed a sense that he was in the presence of his patron, he sat upon the
edge of his chair, placed at three feet distance from the table, and
achieved a communication with his plate by projecting his person towards
it in a line which obliqued from the bottom of his spine, so that the
person who sat opposite to him could only see the foretop of his riding
periwig.
This stooping position might have been inconvenient to another person;
but long habit made it, whether seated or walking, perfectly easy to the
worthy Bailie. In the latter posture it occasioned, no doubt, an unseemly
projection of the person towards those who happened to walk behind; but
those being at all times his inferiors (for Mr.
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