After this ceremony, he conducted his guest homeward by a
pleasant and circuitous route, commanding an extensive prospect of
different villages and houses, to each of which Mr. Bradwardine attached
some anecdote of history or genealogy, told in language whimsical from
prejudice and pedantry, but often respectable for the good sense and
honourable feelings which his narrative displayed, and almost always
curious, if not valuable, for the information they contained.
The truth is, the ride seemed agreeable to both gentlemen, because they
found amusement in each other's conversation, although their characters
and habits of thinking were in many respects totally opposite. Edward, we
have informed the reader, was warm in his feelings, wild and romantic in
his ideas and in his taste of reading, with a strong disposition towards
poetry. Mr Bradwardine was the reverse of all this, and piqued himself
upon stalking through life with the same upright, starched, stoical
gravity which distinguished his evening promenade upon the terrace of
Tully-Veolan, where for hours together--the very model of old
Hardyknute--
Stately stepp'd he east the wa',
And stately stepp'd he west
As for literature, he read the classic poets, to be sure, and the
'Epithalamium' of Georgius Buchanan and Arthur Johnston's Psalms, of a
Sunday; and the 'Deliciae Poetarum Scotorum,' and Sir David Lindsay's
'Works', and Barbour's 'Brace', and Blind Harry's 'Wallace', and 'The
Gentle Shepherd', and 'The Cherry and The Slae.
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