welcome, exclaiming (for he was well known to most of them) that
they had often dined at his expense, and he must now stay and
share their good cheer. My ancestor was, a little alarmed, for,
like the goodman of Lochside, he had more money about his person
than he cared to risk in such society. However, being naturally a
bold, lively-spirited man, he entered into the humour of the thing
and sate down to the feast, which consisted of all the varieties
of game, poultry, pigs, and so forth that could be collected by a
wide and indiscriminate system of plunder. The dinner was a very
merry one; but my relative got a hint from some of the older
gipsies to retire just when--

The mirth and fun grew fast and furious,

and, mounting his horse accordingly, he took a French leave of his
entertainers, but without experiencing the least breach of
hospitality. I believe Jean Gordon was at this
festival.'[Footnote: Blackwood's Magazine, vol. I, p. 54]

Notwithstanding the failure of Jean's issue, for which

Weary fa' the waefu' wuddie,

a granddaughter survived her, whom I remember to have seen. That
is, as Dr. Johnson had a shadowy recollection of Queen Anne as a
stately lady in black, adorned with diamonds, so my memory is
haunted by a solemn remembrance of a woman of more than female
height, dressed in a long red cloak, who commenced acquaintance by
giving me an apple, but whom, nevertheless, I looked on with as
much awe as the future Doctor, High Church and Tory as he was