Dunkeld

“ I have never been a flirting man, for which I may thank my father and mother, who aye were leal and true. What a picture they were in fair Dunkeld, going down life's hill together; he only living after her to close her eyes. ”

“ The girl your lordship noticed yesterday in the procession."
"The girl who is so like you?" exclaimed Dunkeld. "I thought your ladyship was a stranger to at least one of the deadly sins, and knew no touch of vanity. But I find you are mortal, and that you had a fancy to see a face like your own."
"Yes, I had a fancy to see the girl. And now I want to help her, if I can. She is desperately poor."
"Is anybody poor in Italy? I have always thought that Italian peasants live upon sunshine and a few ripe figs, and have no use for money."
"They are very poor. The grandfather is old, and ailing. ”

“ He died 20 July 1596, and was buried at Muckart, where there is a tombstone to him with the following inscription: ‘Jacobus Paton de Middle Ballilisk quondam episcopus de Dunkeld, qui obiit 20 Julii 1596.’ He had a son Archibald, to whom the king made a gift, 20 May 1574, of the altarage of St. Peter in Dunkeld for seven years, to enable him to study grammar in the school of Dunkeld. ”

“ Presently it became a superstition with him that death was the inevitable accompaniment of robbery, and, as he was incapable of remorse, he grew callous, and neglected the simplest precautions. At Dunkeld he razed a rifled house to the ground, and with the utmost effrontery repeated the performance at Aberdeen. But at last he had been tracked by a company of soldiers, who, that justice might not be cheated of her prey, carried him to gaol, where after the briefest trial he was condemned to death. ”

“ The excellent grammar-schools in Inverness, Fortrose, and Dunkeld sent out men well-informed, excellent classical scholars, and these from among that order which in England is the most illiterate—the gentlemen-farmers. The Universities gave them even a greater extent of advantages. When the Hessian troops were quartered in Atholl, the commanding officers, who were accomplished gentlemen, found a ready communication in Latin at every inn. Upon the Colonel of the Hessian cavalry halting at Dunkeld, he was addressed by the innkeeper in Latin. ”

“ Afterwards, when he became Bishop of Dunkeld, he lived in the palace of the Bishops of Dunkeld, in the Cowgate. The Cowgate was then a fashionable and but half-built suburb, lying below the main ridge of the city to the south, and communicating with the main city above it by numerous wynds and closes. The Flodden wall included the Cowgate, which the earlier wall had not done. Here were the palaces of many great Church dignitaries and many nobles,—the palace of the Bishops{88} of Dunkeld, the town mansion of the Earl of Angus, (who in James III.’s reign was Gavin Douglas’s nephew) ”

“ Lord Dunkeld had advised and assisted her in making the settlement on the Baris, but she knew that he thought her foolish and quixotic in her determination to provide for this particular family.
"I could find you a score of claimants for your bounty, far more pathetic cases than Baptisto, if you are so set upon playing the good angel," he said. "'Tis a mercy you do not want to provide for the whole pauper population upon the same magnificent scale. Three hundred a year for an Italian peasant! But a woman's charity is ever a romantic impulse ”

“ For five years after the fall of Duncan his successful rival reigned in peace, when an attempt was made by the adherents of the late king to regain their lost ascendancy. A. D. 1045. The children of Duncan were still in their infancy, and their cause was sustained by their grandfather, Crinan, the aged abbot of Dunkeld; but his defeat and death, “with nine times twenty warriors,” extinguished for a time the hopes of the House of Atholl, and only served to secure the throne more firmly in the power of Macbeth. ”

“ The choir of the ancient cathedral is still used as the parish church. Near it is Dunkeld House, the seat of the Duke of Atholl, the grounds of which are the finest and most extensive in Scotland.
Dunkers, or Tunkers, also called Dippers, a religious sect in America, founded by Conrad Peysel, a German, in 1724, and which takes its name from the Ger. tunken, to dip, from their mode of baptizing converts. They reject infant baptism; use great plainness of dress and language; refuse to take oaths or to fight ”

“ It was, however, reported to Lord Murray, on 29 July, that Robertson and Duncan Menzies, with an advanced part of King James's forces, had passed Dunkeld on the way to Angus, and were threatening to kill all who refused to join them (ib. p. 41) . ”

“ After spending a week in Cape Town, finding that they overcharged me at the hotel, and having seen everything there was to see, including the botanical gardens, which seem to me likely to confer a great benefit on the country, and the new Houses of Parliament, which I expect will do nothing of the sort, I determined to go back to Natal by the Dunkeld, then lying at the docks waiting for the Edinburgh Castle due in from England. ”

“ He must have been there early in June 1823; for a letter of his is extant, dated from Kinnaird House on the 17th of that month, in which he describes his first sight of Dunkeld and its old cathedral, with Dunsinane Hill, and the position of old Birnam Wood in the neighbourhood, and his thoughts in those spots of “the immortal link-boy” that had made them famous. The same letter gives an interesting glimpse of his own mood in the first month of his Tayside residence with the Bullers. ”

“ For Mame this was a fresh phase of existence. Her few days at Cowes aboard the Excelsior had done something [259] to prepare her for the freedom of the moors; but Dunkeldie itself, gorgeously set in the lee of the Grampians, was something new. Dunkeldie was beyond her dreams. On the August evening she motored with Lady Violet from the train at Inverauchty, which was fifteen miles away and the nearest railway station, and saw the great house of stone nestling against a background of mountain and forest and the heather billowing around it, she gave a little gasp. ”

“ There were several reasons why Mame’s heart was set on an invitation to Dunkeldie; but one must not look for everything in this world. All the same it was a defeat. And the moral of it was, no doubt, that at last the tide had begun to turn.
[254] XXXVI COWES was very enjoyable. The Excelsior was a comfortable yacht. Its hospitality was lavish. Dunning père was perhaps inclined to set a value on himself; the same applied to Dunning mère; but Sidney Dunning, heir to half a million six per cent debentures, was well mannered and attentive. ”

“ During two months of each summer, the hilly countries of the Lowlands were inundated by hundreds of woman from the Highlands, who bartered small articles of dress, and of domestic import, for wool; these were known by the name of norlan’ netties; and few nights passed, during the wool season, that some of them were not lodged at my father’s house. It was from two of these that Duncan learned one day that he was laird of Glenellich’s only son and heir, and that a large sum had been offered to any person that could discover him. ”

“ The white men are to be captured and shot with arrows. The magic machine that is a bird and a fish will be destroyed, and the two black kings may then go free because they speak in our tongue, and are therefore brothers.”
“That is pleasant news,” said Duncan. “When will they do this?”
“To-day, if they can. I was with them at the council. I told them that I loved you, and would make you the mate of the Princess Ilalah. But to that my father would not agree. He says you must die.” ”

“ But Duncan very gently, very coldly, repelled her. He was representative of his generation. Things were not LEARNED by the best people; they were instinctively KNOWN. The girls that Duncan knew—the very children in their nurseries—never hesitated over the wording of a note of thanks, never innocently omitted the tipping of a servant, never asked their maid's advice as to suitable frocks and gloves for certain occasions. All these things, and a thousand more, his stepmother did, to his cold embarrassment and annoyance. ”

“ Fear not said Duncan. I will protect you with my life. Pray, may I ask you what is your name? said the old man, still looking earnestly at him. That you may, replied Duncan, no man has so good a right to ask any thing of me as you have—I am Duncan Campbell, your own son! M-m-my son! exclaimed the old man, and sunk back on a seat with a convulsive moan. Duncan held him in his arms—he soon recovered, and asked many incoherent questions—looking at the two moles on his right leg—kissed him, and then wept on his bosom for joy. ”

“ A sight just then appeared, which somewhat interested his heavy and forlorn heart—it was a large drove of Highland cattle. They were the only creatures like acquaintances that Duncan had seen for a year, and a tender feeling of joy, mixed with regret, thrilled his heart at the sight of their white horns and broad dew-laps. As the van passed him, he thought their looks were particularly gruff and sullen; he soon perceived the cause, they were all in the hands of Englishmen; poor exiles like himself; going far away to be killed and eaten, and would never see the Highland hills again. ”

“ Dunkelsbaum's arrival at Brooch until Merry Down was no longer in the market.
My heart began to beat violently....
Berry was speaking again.
"Wait half a minute, and we'll change over." He turned to Adèle. "Will you sit in front with Boy?"
As the change was being made, Mr. Dunkelsbaum advanced.
I have seldom set eyes upon a less prepossessing man. To liken him to a vicious over-fed pug is more than charitable. Smug, purse-proud and evil, his bloated countenance was most suggestive. ”

“ The halls and cottages of Glenellich were filled with feasting, joy, and gladness.
It was not so at my father’s house. Misfortune seldom comes singly. Scarcely had our feelings overcome the shock, which they received by the loss of our beloved Duncan, when a moro terriblo misfortuno overtook. My father, by the monstrous ingratitude of a friend whom we trusted, lost at once the greater part of his hard earned fortune. ”

“ Still Dunke said nothing, but the candle-glow that lit his face showed an ugly expression.
"Don't you whip that gun out, Joe Dunke. Don't you! 'Cause why? If you do you're a goner."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I kept the letter you wrote me seven years ago, and have put it where it will do you no good if anything happens to me. That's why you won't draw that gun, Joe Dunke. If you do it will send you to Yuma. Millionaire you may be, but that won't keep you from wearing stripes." ”

“ Duncan really had no more idea of inheriting a title and estate at that time than I, a farm-bred girl, had myself. He was a thorough American, who loved his country, and because his parents had died and left him alone in the world, he was all the more helpful and self-reliant. How his eyes used to twinkle when we sat on our little porch, at evening, as he would say with a flourish, 'Yes, this is all well enough, Anna, but wait till you see our ancestral halls across the sea!' and then his laugh would ring out like the boy he was. But it is the unexpected that always happens. ”

“ It so happened that the pay-sergeant of Duncan's company was likewise a Highlander; and Highlanders being of all classes persons the most national, he soon began to interest himself about the fate of the young recruit. At first Duncan shrank back even from his advances; but it is not natural for the human heart, especially in youth, to continue long indifferent to acts of kindness; so Duncan gradually permitted honest M'Intyre to insinuate himself into his good graces, and they became before long bosom friends. ”

“ He therefore intrusted the sale of his sheep to a neighbour, and, sitting down in one of the public-houses, wrote that letter which had been the subject of his meditations ever since he left Balquhidder. Having completed this task, Duncan bravely determined to forget his sorrows for a while; for which purpose he swallowed a dose of whisky, and entered into conversation with the company about him, among whom were several soldiers—fine, merry, hearty fellows—who, with their corporal, were on the look-out for recruits. The leader of the party was a skilful man in his vocation ”

“ The knife fell from my mother’s hand: she looked him steadily in the face for the space of a minute.—‘Duncan,’ said she, her voice faultering, and the tears dropping from her eyes, ‘Duncan, I never durst ask you before, but I hope you will not leave us altogether?’ Duncan thrust the plate from before him into the middle of the table—took up a book that lay on the window, and looked over the pages—Mary left the room. ”

“ Duncan was taken about and introduced to scores of people whose names he did not even hear. A smile here and a word there was all he had time for, but he managed to meet all "the people one should know," and, being a new man, caused a flutter of expectation among the women. "Who is he?" "What is he?" "Where is he from?" were the questions asked by all, but they scarcely received a satisfactory answer before Marion hurried Duncan into an adjoining room where numerous pretty girls were dispensing that universal anodyne of modern life, tea. What should we moderns do without tea? ”