She said in ire, that, while she
lived, the light of God should visit the house of
her fathers; and while she had a penny, king and
country should have their due. Indeed, she was
punctiliously loyal, even in that most staggering
test of loyalty, the payment of imposts. Mr Beauffet
told me he was ordered to offer a glass of wine
to the person who collected the income tax, and
that the poor man was so overcome by a reception
so unwontedly generous, that he had wellnigh
fainted on the spot.
You entered by a matted anteroom into the
eating parlour, filled with old-fashioned furniture,
and hung with family portraits, which, excepting
one of Sir Bernard Bethune, in James the Sixth's
time, said to be by Jameson, were exceedingly
frightful. A saloon, as it was called, a long narrow
chamber, led out of the dining-parlour, and
served for a drawing-room. It was a pleasant
apartment, looking out upon the south flank of
Holyrood-house, the gigantic slope of Arthur's
Seat, and the girdle of lofty rocks, called Salisbury
Crags;* objects so rudely wild, that the mind can
* The Rev. Mr Bowles derives the name of these crags, as
of the Episcopal city in the west of England, from the same
root; both, in his opinion, which he very ably defends and
illustrates, having been the sites of druidical temples.
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