Cromwell. In 1652, during the Interregnum that
followed Charles's execution, the earl of Glencairn
continued this battle: Redgauntlet, we are to
understand, joined him. When Charles II was
restored to the throne in 1660, the royalists and
prelatists regained the upper hand. Their conflict
with the Covenanters culminated, during the 'kill
ing years' of 1681?85, with massacres of the 'hill
folk,' called this because Presbyterian ministers
who after the Restoration had been ejected from
their churches had taken to conducting religious
sendees outdoors.
5. Know. 6. Always. 7. Royalist aristocrats who led the persecutions of Covenanters in 1681?85. Folk legends held that
both had diabolical powers, which Scott transfers
to Redgauntlet in the following paragraph.
8. A word for river valley, perhaps of Scott's coining.
9. Much. 1. To take the Test is, according to the terms of the Test Act of 1681, to swear an oath recognizing
the monarch's supremacy as head of the Church,
something a Presbyterian, who recognized Christ
alone as head, could not do. Redgauntlet and fol
lowers used this legal device to hunt down 'recu
sants,' i.e., those who did not conform to the
Episcopal church.
2. Redgauntlet's supematurally fleet-footed mare could turn a hare?i.e., get in front of it and
change its course1?while being ridden on Carrifra
gawns, a steep slope.
3. Bestowed. 4. 'Devil take Redgauntlet!'
.
41 2 / SIR WALTER SCOTT
Now you are to ken that my gudesire5 lived on Redgauntlet's grund?they ca' the place Primrose-Knowe. We had lived on the grund, and under the Redgauntlets, since the riding days,6 and lang before. It was a pleasant bit; and I think the air is callerer7 and fresher there than ony where else in the country. It's a' deserted now; and I sat on the broken door-cheek three days since, and was glad I couldna see the plight the place was in; but that's a' wide o' the mark.8 There dwelt my gudesire, Steenie Steenson, a rambling, rattling chiel9 he had been in his young days, and could play weel on the pipes; he was famous at 'Hoopers and Girders'?a' Cumberland couldna touch him at 'Jockie Lattin'?and he had the finest finger for the back-lill' between Berwick and Carlisle. The like o' Steenie wasna the sort that they made Whigs o'. And so he became a Tory, as they ca' it, which we now ca' Jacobites,2 just out of a kind of needcessity, that he might belang to some side or other. He had nae ill-will to the Whig bodies, and liked little to see the blude rin, though, being obliged to follow Sir Robert in hunting and hosting, watching and warding,3 he saw muckle mischief, and maybe did some, that he couldna avoid.
Now Steenie was a kind of favourite with his master, and kend a' the folks about the castle, and was often sent for to play the pipes when they were at their merriment. Auld Dougal MacCallum, the butler, that had followed Sir Robert through gude and ill, thick and thin, pool and stream, was specially fond of the pipes, and aye gae4 my gudesire his gude word wi' the Laird; for Dougal could turn his master round his finger.
Weel, round came the Revolution,5 and it had like to have broken the hearts baith of Dougal and his master. But the change was not a'thegether sae great as they feared, and other folk thought for. The Whigs made an unco crawing6 what they wad do with their auld enemies, and in special wi' Sir Robert Red- gauntlet. Rut there were ower many great folks dipped in the same doings, to mak a spick and span new warld. So parliament passed it a' ower easy; and Sir Robert, bating7 that he was held to hunting foxes instead of Covenanters, remained just the man he was. He revel was as loud, and his hall as weel lighted, as ever it had been, though maybe he lacked the fines of the nonconformists, that used to come to stock his larder and cellar; for it is certain he began to be keener about the rents than his tenants used to find him before, and they behoved to be8 prompt to the rent-day, or else the Laird wasna pleased. And he was sic an awsome body, that naebody cared to anger him; for the oaths he swore, and the rage that he used to get into, and the looks that he put on, made men sometimes think him a devil incarnate.
Weel, my gudesire was nae manager?no that he was a very great misguider? but he hadna the saving gift, and he got twa terms' rent in arrear. He got the first brash at Whitsunday put ower wi' fair word and piping; but when Martinmas came, there was a summons from the grund-officer to come wi'
5. Grandfather. the Jacobites?supporters of the exiled James Stu6. Period of Border warfare in the 16th century. art and his heirs. 7. Cooler. 3. Guarding. 8. Beside the point. 4. Gave. 9. Lad. 5. The Revolution of 1688, which expelled the 1. Thumbhole in the melody pipe of a bagpipe. Stuart dynasty from the British throne, and in The border between Scotland and England extends Scotland reestablished Presbyterianism, ending
between Carlisle?chief city of the Northern the persecutions of the Covenanters. Jacobites
