His grandmother never objected to his going to see Miss Napier; it
was in her house that the weary men would this night rest.
It was not without reason that Lord Rothie had teased his hostess
about receiving foot-passengers, for to such it was her invariable
custom to make some civil excuse, sending Meg or Peggy to show them
over the way to the hostelry next in rank, a proceeding recognized
by the inferior hostess as both just and friendly, for the good
woman never thought of measuring The Star against The Boar's Head.
More than one comical story had been the result of this law of The
Boar's Head, unalterable almost as that of the Medes and Persians.
I say almost, for to one class of the footfaring community the
official ice about the hearts of the three women did thaw, yielding
passage to a full river of hospitality and generosity; and that was
the class to which these wayfarers belonged.
Well may Scotland rejoice in her universities, for whatever may be
said against their system--I have no complaint to make--they are
divine in their freedom: men who follow the plough in the spring and
reap the harvest in the autumn, may, and often do, frequent their
sacred precincts when the winter comes--so fierce, yet so
welcome--so severe, yet so blessed--opening for them the doors to
yet harder toil and yet poorer fare. I fear, however, that of such
there will be fewer and fewer, seeing one class which supplied a
portion of them has almost vanished from the country--that class
which was its truest, simplest, and noblest strength--that class
which at one time rendered it something far other than ridicule to
say that Scotland was pre-eminently a God-fearing nation--I mean the
class of cottars.
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