 on, as adding something to the picturesque
effect of the night march.
 
14 Probably something similar to the barn fanners now used for winnowing corn,
which were not, however, used in their present shape until about 1730. They were
objected to by the more rigid sectaries, on their first introduction, upon such
reasoning as that of honest Mause in the text.
 
15 Bent-grass and sand-larks.
16 This was a point of high etiquette. - The custom of keeping the door of a
house or chateau locked during the time of dinner, probably arose from the
family being anciently assembled in the hall at that meal, and liable to
surprise. But it was in many instances continued as a point of high etiquette,
of which the following is an example: -
A considerable landed proprietor in Dumfriesshire, being a bachelor, without
near relations, and determined to make his will, resolved previously to visit
his two nearest kinsmen, and decide which should be his heir, according to the
degree of kindness with which he should be received. Like a good clansman, he
first visited his own chief, a baronet in rank, descendant and representative of
one of the oldest families in Scotland. Unhappily the dinner-bell had rung, and
the door of the castle had been locked before his arrival. The visitor in vain
announced his name and requested admittance; but his chief adhered to the
ancient etiquette, and would on no account suffer the doors to be unbarred.
Irritated at this cold reception, the old Laird rode on to Sanquhar Castle, then
the residence of the Duke of Queensberry, who no sooner heard his name, than,
knowing well he had a will to make, the drawbridge dropped, and the gates flew
open - the table was covered anew - his grace's bachelor and intestate kinsman
was received with the utmost attention and respect; and it is scarcely necessary
to add, that upon his death some years after, the visitor's considerable landed
property went to augment the domains of the ducal house of Queensberry. This
happened about the end of the seventeenth century.
 
17 The Scots retain the use of the word town in its comprehensive Saxon meaning,
as a place of habitation. A mansion or a farm-house, though solitary, is called
the town. A landward town is a dwelling situated in the country.
 
18 A Highland laird, whose peculiarities live still in the recollection of his
countrymen, used to regulate his residence at Edinburgh in the following manner:
Every day he visited the Water-Gate, as it is called, of the Canongate, over
