This opinion was
not better founded than that of the Negroes, who, from the acute and
mischievous pranks of the monkeys, suppose that they have the gift of
speech, and only suppress their powers of elocution to escape being set
to work. But the hypothesis was entirely imaginary; David Gellatley was
in good earnest the half-crazed simpleton which he appeared, and was
incapable of any constant and steady exertion. He had just so much
solidity as kept on the windy side of insanity, so much wild wit as saved
him from the imputation of idiocy, some dexterity in field-sports (in
which we have known as great fools excel), great kindness and humanity in
the treatment of animals entrusted to him, warm affections, a prodigious
memory, and an ear for music.
The stamping of horses was now heard in the court, and Davie's voice
singing to the two large deer greyhounds,
Hie away, hie away,
Over bank and over brae,
Where the copsewood is the greenest,
Where the fountains glisten sheenest,
Where the lady-fern grows strongest,
Where the morning dew lies longest,
Where the black-cock sweetest sips it,
Where the fairy latest trips it.
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