I
I SET OFF UPON MY
JOURNEY TO THE HOUSE OF
SHAWS
I will begin the story of my adventures with a certain
morning early in the month of June, the year of grace
1751, when I took the key for the last time out of the
door of my father?s house. Th e sun began to shi ne upon
the summit of the hill s as I went down the road; and by
the time I had come as far as the manse, the blackbirds
were whistling in the ga rden lilacs, and the mist that hung
around the valley in the time of the dawn was beginning
to arise and die away.
Mr. Campbell, the minister of Essendean, was waiting
for me by the garden gate, good man! He aske d me if I
had breakfasted; and hearing that I lacked for nothing, he
took my hand in both of his and cl apped it kindly under
his arm.
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?Well, Davie, lad,? said he, ?I will go with you as far as
the ford, to set you on the way.? And we began to walk
forward in silence.
?Are ye sorry to leave Essendean?? said he, after a while.
?Why, sir,? said I, ?if I knew where I was going, or what
was likely to become of me, I would tell you candidly.
Essendean is a good place indeed, and I have been very
happy there; but then I have never been anywhere else.
My father and mother, since they are both dead, I shall be
no nearer to in Essendean than in the Kingdom of
Hungary, and, to speak truth, if I thought I had a chance
to better myself where I wa s going I would go with a
good will.?
?Ay?? said Mr. Campbell. ?Very well, Davie. Then it
behoves me to tell your fortune; or so far as I may. When
your mothe r was gone , and your father (the worthy,
Christian man) began to sicken for his end, he gave me in
charge a certain letter, w hich he said was your inheritance.
?So soon,? says he, ?as I am gone, and the house is redd up
and the gear disposed of? (all which, Davie, hath bee n
done), ?give my boy thi s letter into hi s hand, and start hi m
off to the house of Shaws, not far from Cramond. That i s
the place I came from,? he said, ?and it?s where it befits
that my boy should return. He is a steady lad,? your father
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said, ?and a canny goer; and I doubt not he will come safe,
and be well lived where he goes.??
?The house of Shaws!? I cried. ?What had my poor
father to do with the house of Shaws??
?Nay,? said Mr. Campbell, ?w ho can tell that for a
surety? But the name o f tha t fam ily, Davie, boy, is the
name you b ear ? Balfours of Shaw s: an ancient, honest,
reputable house, peradventure in these latter days decayed.
Your father, too, was a man of learning as befitted his
position; no man more plausibly conducted school; nor
had he the manner or t he speech of a common dominie;
but (as ye will yourself remember) I took aye a pleasure to
have him to the manse to m eet the gentry; and those of
my own house, Campbell of Kilrennet, Campbell of
Dunswire, Campbell of Minch, and others, all well-
kenned gentlemen, had pleasure in his so ciety. Lastly, to
put all the elements of this affair be fore you, here is the
testamentary letter itself, sup erscrived by the ow n hand of
our departed brother.?
He gave me the letter, which was addressed in these
words: ?To the hands of Ebenezer Balfour, Esquire, of
Shaws, in his house of Shaws, these will be delivered by
my son, D avid Balfour.? My heart w as beating hard at thi s
great prospect now suddenly opening before a lad of
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seventeen years of age, the son of a poor countr y dominie
in the Forest of Ettrick.
?Mr. Campbell,? I stammered, ?and if you were in my
shoes, woul d you go??
?Of a suret y,? said the minister, ?that would I, and
without pause. A pretty la d like you shoul d get to
Cramond (which i s near in by Edinburgh) in two days of
walk. If the worst came to the worst, and y our high
relations (as I cannot but suppo se the m to be somewhat of
your blood) should put you to the door, ye can but walk
the two days back again and risp at the manse door. But I
would rathe r hope that ye s hall be well received, as your
poor father forecast for you, and for anything that I ken
come to be a great man in time. And here, Davi e, laddie,?
he resumed, ?it lies near upon my conscience to improve
this parti ng, and set you on the right guard against the
dangers of the world.?
Here he cast about for a comfortable seat, lighted on a
big boulder under a birch by the trackside, sate down
upon it with a very long, serious upper lip, a nd the sun
now shining in upon us between two peaks, put his
pocket-hand kerchief over his cocke d hat to shelter him.
There, then, with uplifted forefinger, he first put me on
my guard against a considerable number of heresies, to
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which I had no temptation, and urged upon me to be
instant in my prayers and reading of the Bible. That done,
he drew a picture of the great house that I was bound to,
and how I should conduct myself with its inhabitants.
?Be soople, Davie, in things immate rial,? said he . ?Bear
ye this in mind, that, though gentle born, ye have had a
country rearing. Dinnae shame us, Davie, dinnae shame
us! In yon great, muckle house, with all these d omestics,
upper and under, show yourself as nice, as circumspect, as
quick at the conception, and as sl ow of speech as any. As
for the laird ? remember he?s the laird; I say no more:
honour to w hom honour . It?s a ple asure to obey a laird; or
should be, to the young.?
?Well, sir,? said I, ?it may be ; and I?ll promise you I?ll
try to make it so.?
?Why, very well said,? replied Mr. Campbell, heartily.
?And now to come to the material, or (to make a quibble)
to the immaterial. I have here a little packet which
contai ns four things.? He tugge d it, as he spoke, and with
some great difficulty, fro m the skirt pocket of hi s coat. ?Of
these four things, the first is y our legal due: the little pickle
money for your father?s books and plenishing, which I
have bought (as I have explained from the first) in the
design of re-selling at a profit to the incoming dominie.
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The other three are gifties that Mrs. Campbell and myself
would be blithe of your acceptance . The first, which is
round, will l ikely please ye best at the first off-go; but, O
Davie, laddie, it?s but a drop of water in the sea ; it?ll help
you but a step, and vanish like the morning. The second,
which is flat and square and written upon, will stand by
you through life, like a good staff for the road, and a good
pillow to your head in sickness. And as for the last, which
is cubical, that?ll see you, it?s my prayerful wish, into a
better land.?
With that he got upon his feet, took off his hat, and
prayed a little while aloud, and in affecting terms, for a
young man setting out i nto the worl d; then sudd enly took
me in his ar ms and emb raced me very hard; then held me
at arm?s length, looking at me with his face all workin g
with sorrow; and then whipped about, and cry ing good-
bye to me, set off backw ard by the way that we had come
at a sort of jogging run. It might have been laughable to
another; but I was in no mind to laugh. I watched him as
long as he was in sight; and he never stopped hurrying,
nor once looked back. Then it came in upon my mind
that this w as all his sorrow at my departure; and my
conscience smote me hard and fast, because I, for my part,
was overjoyed to get away out of that quiet country-side,
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and go to a great, busy house, among rich and respected
gentlefolk of my own name and blood.
?Davie, Davie,? I thought, ?was ever seen such black
ingratitude? Can you for get o ld favours and old friends at
the mere wh istle of a name? Fie, fie; think shame.?
And I sat d own on the b oulder the good man h ad just
left, and opened the pa rcel to see t he nature of my gifts.
That w hich he had calle d cubical, I had never had much
doubt of; sure enough it was a li ttle Bible, to carry in a
plaid-neuk. That which he had called round, I found to be
a shilling piece; and the third, which was to he lp me so
wonderfully both i n health and sick ness all the days of my
life, was a little piece of coarse yellow paper, written upon
thus in red i nk:
?TO MAKE LILLY OF THE VALLEY WATER.?
Take the flowers of lilly of the valley and distil them in
sack, and drink a spooneful or two as there is occasion. It
restores speech to tho se that have the dumb palsey. It is
good against the Gout; it comforts the heart and
strengthens the memory; and the flowers, put into a
Glasse, close stopt, and set into ane hill of ants for a
month, then take it out, and you will find a liquor which
comes from the flowers, which keep in a vial; it is good, ill
or well, and whether man or woman.?
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And then, in the minister?s own hand, was added:
?Likewise for sprains, rub it in; and for the cholic, a
great spooneful in the hour.?
To be sure, I laughed over this; but it was rather
tremulous laughter; and I was glad to get my bundle on
my staff? s end and set out over the ford and up the hill
upon the farther side; till, just as I came on the green
drove-road running wide throug h the heather, I took my
last look of Kirk Essendean, the trees about the manse, and
the big rowans in the kirkya rd where my father and my
mother lay.
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