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over whom it was spread, from the ears to the tail, and from the shoulder to the fetlock, leaving nothing visible but its head, which looked fiercely out from these enfoldments, like the heraldric representation of a lion looking out of a bush. Mordaunt gallantly lifted up the fair Mistress Yellowley, and, at the expence of very slight exertion, placed her upon the summit of her mountainous saddle. It is probable, that, on feeling herself thus squired and attended upon, and experiencing the long unwonted consciousness that she was attired in her best array, some thoughts dawned upon Mistress Baby’s mind, which chequered, for an in stant, those habitual ideas about thrift, that formed the daily and all-engrossing occupation of her soul. She glanced her eye upon her faded joseph, and on the long housings of her saddle, as she observed, with a smile, to Mordaunt, that “ travelling was a pleasant thing in fine weather and agreeable company, if,” she added, glancing a look at a place where the embroidery was somewhat frayed and tattered, “ it was not sae wasteful to ane’s horse-furniture.”
Meanwhile, her brother stepped stoutly to his steed; and as he chose, notwithstanding the serenity of the weather, to throw a long red cloak over his other garments, his poney was even more completely enveloped in drapery than that of his sister. It happened, moreover, to be an animal of an high and contumacious spirit, bouncing and curvetting occasionally under the weight of Triptolemus, with a vivacity which, notwithstanding his Yorkshire descent, rather deranged him in the saddle; — gambols which, as the palfrey itself was not visible, except upon the strictest inspection, had, at a little distance, an effect as if they were the voluntary movements of the cloaked ca valier, without the assistance of any other legs than those with which nature had provided him; and, to any who had viewed Triptolemus under such a persuasion, the gravity, and even distress, announced in his countenance, must have made a ridiculous contrast to the vivacious caprioles with which he piaffed along the moor.
Mordaunt kept up with this worthy couple, mounted, according to the simplicity of the time and country, on the first and readiest poney which they had been able to press into the service, with no other accoutrement of any kind than the halter which served to guide him; while Mr Yellowley, seeing with pleasure his guide thus readily provided with a steed, privately resolved, that this rude custom of helping travellers to horses, without leave of the proprietor, should not be abated in Zetland, until he came to possess a herd of ponies belonging in property to himself, and exposed to suffer in the way of retaliation.
But to other uses or abuses of the country, Triptolemus Yellowley shewed himself less tolerant. Long and wearisome were the discourses he held with Mordaunt, or, (to speak much more correctly,) the harangues which he inflicted upon him, concerning the changes which his own advent in these isles was about to occasion. Unskilled as he was in the modern arts by which an estate may be improved to such a high degree that it shall altogether slip through the proprietor’s fingers, Triptolemus had at least the zeal, if not the knowledge, of a whole agricultural society in his own person; nor was he surpassed by any who has followed him, in that noble spirit which scorns to balance profit against outlay, but holds the glory of effecting a great change on the face of the land, to be, like virtue, in a great degree its own reward.
No part of the wild and mountainous region over which Mordaunt guided him but what suggested to his active imagination some scheme of improvement and alteration. He would make a road through yon scarce passable glen, where at present nothing but the sure-footed creatures on which they were mounted could tread with any safety. He would substitute better houses for the skeoes, or sheds built of dry stones, in which the inhabitants curcd or manufactured their fish — they should brew good ale instead of bland —
they should plant forests where tree never grew, and find mines of treasure where aDanish skilling was accounted a coin of a most respectable denomination. All these mutations, with many others, did the worthy factor resolve upon, speaking at the same time with the utmost confidence of the countenance and assistance whieh he was to receive from the higher elasses, and especially from Magnus Troil.
“I will impart some of my ‘deas to the poor man,” he said, “ before we are both many hours older; and you will mark how grateful he will be to the man who brings him knowledge, which is better than wealth.”
“I would not have you build too strongly on that,” said Mordaunt, by way of caution; “ Mag-’ nus Troil’s boat is kittle to trim — he likes his own ways, and his country-ways, and you will as soon teach your sheltie to dive like a sealgh, as bring Magnus to take a Scottish fashion in the place of a Norse one; — and yet, if he is steady to his old eustoms, he may perhaps be as changeable as another in his old friendships.”
“Heus tu, inepte!” said the scholar of Saint Andrews, “ steady or unsteady, what can it mat—
ter? — am not I here in point of trust, and in point of power? and shall aFowde, by which barbarous appellative, this Magnus Troil still calls himself, presume to measure judgment and weigh reasons with me, who represent the full dignity of the Chamberlain of the islands of Orkney and Zetland?”
“Still,” said Mordaunt, “ I would advise you not to advance too rashly upon his prejudices. Magnus Troil, from the hour of his birth to this day, never saw a greater man than himself, and-it is difficult to bridle an old horse for the first time. Besides, he has at no time in his life been a patient listener to long explanations, so it is possible that he may.quarrel with.your proposed; reformation, before you can convince him of its advantages.”
“How mean you, young man?” said the factor. — ” Is there one who dwells in these islands, who is so wretchedly blind as not to be sensible of their deplorable defects? Can a man,” he added, rising into enthusiasm as he spoke, “ or even a beast, look at that thing there, which they have the impudence to call a corn-mill, without trembling to think that corn should be entrusted to such a miserable molendinary? The wretches are obliged to have at least fifty in each parish, each trundling away upon its paltry millstone, under the thatch of a roof no bigger than a bee-skep, instead of a noble and seemly baron’s mill, that you would hear the clack of through the haill country; and that casts the meal through the mill-eye by forpits at a time.”
“Ay, ay, brother,” said his sister, “ that’s spoken like your wise sell. The mair cost the mair honour — that’s your word ever mair. Can it no creep into your wise head, man, that ilka body grinds their ain nievefu’ of meal, in this country, without plaguing themselves about baron’s mills, and thirls, and sucken, and the like trade? How mony a time have I heard you bell-the-cat with auld Edie Happer, the miller at Grindleburn, and wi’ his very knave too, about in-town and out-town multures — lock, gowpen, and knaveship, and a’ the lave o’t; and now naething less will serve you than to bring in the very same fashery on a wheen puir bodies, that big ilk ane a mill for themselves, sic as it is.”
“Dinna tell me of gowpen and knaveship!” exclaimed the indignant agriculturist; “ better pay the half the grist to the miller, to have the rest grund in a Christian manner, than put good grain into a bairn’s whirligig. Look at it for a moment, Baby — Bide still, ye cursed imp!” This interjection was applied to his poney, which began to be extremely impatient, while its rider interrupted his journey, to point out all the weak points of the Zetland mill — ” look at it, I say — it’s just one degree better than a hand-quern — it has neither wheel nor trindle — neither cog nor happer — Bide still, there’s a canny beast- — it can?- na grind a bickerfu’ of meal in a quarter of an hour, and that will be mair like a mash for horse than a mcltith for man’s use — Wherefore — Bide still, I say — wherefore — wherefore — The deil’s ii} the beast, and nae good, I think!” —
As he uttered the last words, the sheltie, which had pranced and curvetted for some time with much impatience, at length got its head betwixt its legs, and at once canted its rider into the little rivulet, which served to drive the depreciated engine he was surveying; then emancipating it self from the folds of the cloak, fled back towards its own wilderness, neighing in scorn, and flinging out its heels at every five yards.
Laughing heartily at his disaster, Mordaunt helped the old man to arise; while his sister sarcastically congratulated him on having fallen rather into the shallows of a Zetland rivulet than the depths of a Scottish mill-pond. Disdaining to reply to this sarcasm, Triptolemus,