Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 219: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

206 JOSEPH WILMOT;: OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. of the earth: so that as he was thus a Chief, his estate was a domain, and his house was a castle. IT soon found that I had very little to do and plenty of leisure time on my hands. The services required of me by Mr. Lennox Vennachar, were more nominal than otherwise; and I was attached to him in the capacity of a body-servyant as a sort of necessary appendage to one who was a chief- tain’s son, and who would in the course of time become a chieftain himself. In a word, my duties —such as they were—resembled those of a valet, although I was put into livery. I had to take care of my young master’s clothes—attend him when he was dressing, but only just long enough to look out what he required; and beyond these avocations I had literally nothing at all to do. No waiting at table—no answering the front door —no summonses to obey, save those of Mr. Len- nox, which were few and far between enough. Indeed, amongst such a number of servants there were several others who led almost as idle a life :— namely, the Chief’s valet—Miss Emmeline’s two lady’s-maids (for her uncle insisted that she should have two, though she could not find employment enough for one)—the two hall-porters (for there was one to each hall, the baronial and the marble halls, as they were respectively called) and the magnificently plumed piper. The Chief ’s valet,—who immediately constituted himself my associate on- my arrival at Inch Meth- glin,x—was a man of about forty, good-naturea and talkative, very proud of his Chief, and very fond of making strangers acquainted with all the fine views and most attractive scenery upon the peninsula or in the neighbourhood of the lake. I should observe that of all the domestics, male and female, I was the only English one; but so far from this circumstance causing me to be viewed with an evil eye by a set of dependants who, being all of the same country, might have shown some exclusiveness,—I at once became a_ general favourite. The contrast of my comparatively quick-spoken English with their slow deliberate Scotch delivery, afforded them pleasure and amuse- ment by its novelty; and as few of them had ever been out of the Highlands, and none of them at all in England, they were much interested in the descriptions I gave them of London and other parts of the southern kingdom. But to return to the valet, whose name was Cameron,—I was about to observe that on the day after my arrival, he took me to walk with him through the grounds. The whole of the Inch, about three miles in cir- cumference, was laid out to as much advantage as the most admirable agricultural or horticultural skill could possibly display itself anywhere. Flower and kitchen gardens—orchards and pad- docks—meadows and plantations, constituted a pleasing variety. The space occupied by the buildings themselves, was considerable: for the dimensions of the outhouses were in proportion to those of the mansion. There was a dairy, beau- tifully fitted up: the store-rooms were filled with provisions of all kinds: half-a-dozen carriages of different descriptions, from the lumbering family chariot down to the light phaeton, were ranged in the coach-house; and a, dozen horses displayed . one sense, formed an exception to the general routine of life at Inch Methglin,” said Cameron, as we wandered along the shore of the Inch,—that shore where countless. water-plants fringed the bank, and where a few of the earliest of the wild. flowers. of Spring were already beginning to show themselves. “There was no company here yester-« day: but at least five days out of the seven in every week, there are dinner-parties—and through- out the year there is a constant succession .of visitors to stay some for afew days, others for a few weeks.” “Then you are by no means dull in the High- lands?’ I observed. “But it were impossible. to be dull,” I immediately added, “in such a place, to which all the seasons. of the year must give their own particular charms.” “Dull?” exclaimed Cameron: “who could be ever dullat Inch Methglin? The Chief is hospitality personified; and the castle is for the most part a scene of gaiety.. Ah! there is Mr. Lennox, going. to take a row in one of the-boats. No—he has, got his fishing-tackle with him; and he will amuse himself for hours in yon little creek which you, may see on this side of the village.” “He is an exceedingly handsome young gentle. man,” I observed, following with my eyes the tall form of Lennox Vennachar as he passed along the fine sweeping avenue from the castle to the boat- house. “Yes,” returned Cameron; “the Chief may be proud of him asa son; and we.are all proud of, him as our future Chief. Don’t you think, Jo-. seph, that he and Miss Emmeline will make a splendid couple ?” “ Are they engaged to each other?” I inquired, “To be sure!” ejaculated Cameron, as if sur- prised I should not have already known that such was the case, although I had only been a few hours at Inch Methglin, “ They were brought up. together from their infancy—they were always in- tended for each other—and I suppose that we may soon expect to have the period for the bridal an- nounced. The Chief loves Miss Emmeline as. if. she were his own daughter; and what.is more, he is proud of her too—for the purest blood of the Vennachars rolls in her veins. You know that she is the daughter of the Chief’s younger brother, who died in India. Did you ever see a more beautiful creature ?” “Scarcely,’ I answered, not choosing to speak more specifically on the point, and thus be led into explanations relative to Annabel. ‘* No—I should think not!” exclaimed Cameron, proudly. “But everything is grand, or noble, or beautiful in connexion with the Inch Methglins. The Chief himself is the greatest in the High. lands—his castle is the finest—his grounds the most charming—his domain the most princely. His son is the handsomest and the bravest—his niece the fairest of all the fair flowers of our country. Ah!” added the valet, with a sigh of prideful satisfaction, “it is a great thing to be in the household of Inch Methglin.” Though I considered Cameron’s exultations to — border upon the bombastic, or at least on the hy- perbolic, in certain respects,—I did not choose to their varieties of breed, of colour, and of size, in | wound his feelings by any remark indicative of the well kept stables. dissent; and at the moment I beheld something “You happened to arrive upon a day which, in! which enabled me to change the conversation. COMIGooo