.
The husband, a jealous man, belike, suspected that a taste so nearly resembling
that of Mother Eve prognosticated a similar fall. As the honour of a noble
family is concerned, I will say no more on the subject, only that the lands of
Lochard and Cringlecut still pay a fine of six bolls of barley annually, to
atone the guilt of their audacious owner, who intruded himself and his worldly
suspicions upon the seclusion of the Abbot and his penitent. - Admire the little
belfry rising above the ivy-mantled porch - there was here a hospitium,
hospitale, or hospitamentum (for it is written all these various ways in the old
writings and evidents), in which the monks received pilgrims. I know our
minister has said, in the Statistical Account, that the hospitium was situated
either in the lands of Haltweary or upon those of Half-starvet; but he is
incorrect, Mr. Lovel - that is the gate called still the Palmer's Port, and my
gardener found many hewn stones, when he was trenching the ground for winter
celery, several of which I have sent as specimens to my learned friends, and to
the various antiquarian societies of which I am an unworthy member. But I will
say no more at present; I reserve something for another visit, and we have an
object of real curiosity before us.«
    While he was thus speaking, he led the way briskly through one or two rich
pasture-meadows, to an open heath or common, and so to the top of a gentle
eminence. »Here,« he said, »Mr. Lovel, is a truly remarkable spot.«
    »It commands a fine view,« said his companion, looking around him.
    »True: but it is not for the prospect I brought you hither; do you see
nothing else remarkable? - nothing on the surface of the ground?«
    »Why, yes; I do see something like a ditch, indistinctly marked.«
    »Indistinctly! - pardon me, sir, but the indistinctness must be in your
powers of vision. Nothing can be more plainly traced - a proper agger or vallum,
with its corresponding ditch or fossa. Indistinctly! why, Heaven help you, the
lassie, my niece, as light-headed a goose as womankind affords, saw the traces
of the ditch at once. Indistinct! - why, the great station at Ardoch, or that at
Burnswark in Annandale, may be clearer, doubtless, because they are stative
forts, whereas this was only an occasional encampment. Indistinct! - why, you
