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The Antiquary THE ANTIQUARY BY SIR WALTER SCOTT An Electronic Classics Series Publication The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott is a publication of The Electronic Classics Series. This Portable Docu- ment file is furnished free and without any charge of any kind. Any person using this document file, for any purpose, and in any way does so at his or her own risk. Neither the Pennsylvania State University nor Jim Manis, Editor, nor anyone associated with the Pennsylvania State University assumes any re- sponsibility for the material contained within the document or for the file as an electronic transmission, in any way. The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott, The Electronic Classics Series, Jim Manis, Editor, PSU-Hazleton, Hazleton, PA 18202 is a Portable Document File produced as part of an ongoing publication project to bring classical works of literature, in English, to free and easy access of those wishing to make use of them. Jim Manis is a faculty member of the English Department of The Pennsylvania State University. This page and any preceding page(s) are restricted by copyright. The text of the following pages are not copyrighted within the United States; however, the fonts used may be. Cover Design: Jim Manis Copyright © 2009 - 2013 The Pennsylvania State University is an equal opportunity university. Sir Walter Scott THE VOLUME ONE ANTIQUARY I knew Anselmo. He was shrewd and prudent, Wisdom and cunning had their shares of him; BY But he was shrewish as a wayward child, And pleased again by toys which childhood please; As—book of fables, graced with print of wood, SIR WALTER SCOTT, Or else the jingling of a rusty medal, Or the rare melody of some old ditty, BART. That first was sung to please King Pepin’s cradle COMPLETE 3 The Antiquary language. This is, I think, peculiarly the case with the peasantry of my own country, a class with whom I have INTRODUCTION long been familiar. The antique force and simplicity of their language, often tinctured with the Oriental elo- quence of Scripture, in the mouths of those of an el- THE PRESENT WORK completes a series of fictitious nar- evated understanding, give pathos to their grief, and ratives, intended to illustrate the manners of Scotland dignity to their resentment. at three different periods. Waverley embraced the age I have been more solicitous to describe manners mi- of our fathers, Guy Mannering that of our own youth, nutely than to arrange in any case an artificial and com- and the Antiquary refers to the last ten years of the eigh- bined narrative, and have but to regret that I felt my- teenth century. I have, in the two last narratives espe- self unable to unite these two requisites of a good Novel. cially, sought my principal personages in the class of The knavery of the adept in the following sheets may society who are the last to feel the influence of that gen- appear forced and improbable; but we have had very eral polish which assimilates to each other the manners late instances of the force of superstitious credulity to of different nations. Among the same class I have placed a much greater extent, and the reader may be assured, some of the scenes in which I have endeavoured to illus- that this part of the narrative is founded on a fact of trate the operation of the higher and more violent pas- actual occurrence. sions; both because the lower orders are less restrained I have now only to express my gratitude to the Public by the habit of suppressing their feelings, and because I for the distinguished reception which, they have given agree, with my friend Wordsworth, that they seldom to works, that have little more than some truth of fail to express them in the strongest and most powerful colouring to recommend them, and to take my respect- 4 Sir Walter Scott ful leave, as one who is not likely again to solicit their tempts have not in this last particular been uniformly favour. successful. There are men whose characters are so pecu- liarly marked, that the delineation of some leading and * * * principal feature, inevitably places the whole person before you in his individuality. Thus the character of To the above advertisement, which was prefixed to the Jonathan Oldbuck in the Antiquary, was partly founded first edition of the Antiquary, it is necessary in the on that of an old friend of my youth, to whom I am present edition to add a few words, transferred from the indebted for introducing me to Shakspeare, and other Introduction to the Chronicles of the Canongate, re- invaluable favours; but I thought I had so completely specting the character of Jonathan Oldbuck. disguised the likeness, that it could not be recognised by “I may here state generally, that although I have any one now alive. I was mistaken, however, and indeed deemed historical personages free subjects of delinea- had endangered what I desired should be considered as tion, I have never on any occasion violated the respect a secret; for I afterwards learned that a highly respect- due to private life. It was indeed impossible that traits able gentleman, one of the few surviving friends of my proper to persons, both living and dead, with whom I father, and an acute critic, had said, upon the appear- have had intercourse in society, should not have risen to ance of the work, that he was now convinced who was my pen in such works as Waverley, and those which, the author of it, as he recognised, in the Antiquary, followed it. But I have always studied to generalise the traces of the character of a very intimate friend* of my portraits, so that they should still seem, on the whole, father’s family.” the productions of fancy, though possessing some re- *The late George Constable of Wallace Craigie, near semblance to real individuals. Yet I must own my at- Dundee. 5 The Antiquary I have only farther to request the reader not to sup- Many of the old Scottish mendicants were by no means pose that my late respected friend resembled Mr. to be confounded with the utterly degraded class of be- Oldbuck, either in his pedigree, or the history imputed ings who now practise that wandering trade. Such of them to the ideal personage. There is not a single incident in as were in the habit of travelling through a particular the Novel which is borrowed from his real circumstances, district, were usually well received both in the farmer’s excepting the fact that he resided in an old house near a ha’, and in the kitchens of the country gentlemen. Mar- flourishing seaport, and that the author chanced to wit- tin, author of the Reliquiae Divi Sancti Andreae, written ness a scene betwixt him and the female proprietor of a in 1683, gives the following account of one class of this stage-coach, very similar to that which commences the order of men in the seventeenth century, in terms which history of the Antiquary. An excellent temper, with a would induce an antiquary like Mr. Oldbuck to regret its slight degree of subacid humour; learning, wit, and droll- extinction. He conceives them to be descended from the ery, the more poignant that they were a little marked ancient bards, and proceeds:—”They are called by oth- by the peculiarities of an old bachelor; a soundness of ers, and by themselves, Jockies, who go about begging; thought, rendered more forcible by an occasional quaint- and use still to recite the Sloggorne (gathering-words or ness of expression, were, the author conceives, the only war-cries) of most of the true ancient surnames of Scot- qualities in which the creature of his imagination re- land, from old experience and observation. Some of them sembled his benevolent and excellent old friend. I have discoursed, and found to have reason and discre- The prominent part performed by the Beggar in the tion. One of then told me there were not now above twelve following narrative, induces the author to prefix a few of them in the whole isle; but he remembered when they remarks of that character, as it formerly existed in Scot- abounded, so as at one time he was one of five that usu- land, though it is now scarcely to be traced. ally met at St. Andrews.” 6 Sir Walter Scott The race of Jockies (of the above description) has, I And when I downa yoke a naig, suppose, been long extinct in Scotland; but the old re- Then, Lord be thankit, I can beg. membered beggar, even in my own time, like the Baccoch, or travelling cripple of Ireland, was expected Again, in his Epistle to Davie, a brother Poet, he states, to merit his quarters by something beyond an exposi- that in their closing career— tion of his distresses. He was often a talkative, face- tious fellow, prompt at repartee, and not withheld from The last o’t, the warst o’t, exercising his powers that way by any respect of per- Is only just to beg. sons, his patched cloak giving him the privilege of the ancient jester. To be a gude crack, that is, to possess tal- And after having remarked, that ents for conversation, was essential to the trade of a “puir body” of the more esteemed class; and Burns, who To lie in kilns and barns at e’en, delighted in the amusement their discourse afforded, When banes are crazed and blude is thin, seems to have looked forward with gloomy firmness to the possibility of himself becoming one day or other a Is doubtless great distress; the bard reckons up, with member of their itinerant society.
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