had been
universal in Scotland about fifty years before, that the domestics, after having
placed the dinner on the table, sate down at the lower end of the board, and
partook of the share which was assigned to them, in company with their masters.
On the day, therefore, after Cuddie's arrival, being the third from the opening
of this narrative, old Robin, who was butler, valet-de-chambre, footman,
gardener, and what not, in the house of Milnwood, placed on the table an immense
charger of broth, thickened with oatmeal and colewort, in which ocean of liquid
were indistinctly discovered, by close observers, two or three short ribs of
lean mutton sailing to and fro. Two huge baskets, one of bread made of barley
and pease, and one of oat-cakes, flanked this standing dish. A large boiled
salmon would now-a-days have indicated more liberal housekeeping; but at that
period salmon was caught in such plenty in the considerable rivers in Scotland,
that instead of being accounted a delicacy, it was generally applied to feed the
servants, who are said sometimes to have stipulated that they should not be
required to eat a food so luscious and surfeiting in its quality above five
times a-week. The large black jack, filled with very small beer of Milnwood's
own brewing, was allowed to the company at discretion, as were the bannocks,
cakes, and broth; but the mutton was reserved for the heads of the family, Mrs.
Wilson included; and a measure of ale somewhat deserving the name, was set apart
in a silver tankard for their exclusive use. A huge kebbock (a cheese, that is,
made with ewe-milk mixed with cow's milk) and a jar of salt butter, were in
common to the company.
    To enjoy this exquisite cheer, was placed, at the head of the table, the old
Laird himself, with his nephew on the one side, and the favourite housekeeper on
the other. At a long interval, and beneath the salt of course, sate old Robin, a
meagre, half-starved serving-man, rendered cross and cripple by rheumatism, and
a dirty drab of a housemaid, whom use had rendered callous to the daily
exercitations which her temper underwent at the hands of her master and Mrs.
Wilson. A barn-man, a white-headed cow-herd boy, with Cuddie the new ploughman
and his mother, completed the party. The other labourers belonging to the
property resided in their own houses, happy