Clerk of Eldin, the celebrated author of
Naval Tactics, used to tell this story with glee, and being a younger son of Sir
John's was perhaps present on the occasion.
 
7 The reader will understand that this refers to the reign of our late gracious
Sovereign, George the Third.
8 The legend of Mrs. Grizel Oldbuck was partly taken from an extraordinary story
which happened about seventy years since, in the south of Scotland, so peculiar
in its circumstances that it merits being mentioned in this place. Mr.
Rutherfurd of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the vale of Gala, was
prosecuted for a very considerable sum, the accumulated arrears of teind (or
tithe) for which he was said to be indebted to a noble family, the titulars (lay
impropriators of the tithes). Mr. Rutherfurd was strongly impressed with the
belief that his father had, by a form of process peculiar to the law of
Scotland, purchased these lands from the titular, and therefore that the present
prosecution was groundless. But, after an industrious search among his father's
papers, an investigation of the public records, and a careful inquiry among all
persons who had transacted law business for his father, no evidence could be
recovered to support his defence. The period was now near at hand when he
conceived the loss of his lawsuit to be inevitable, and he had formed his
determination to ride to Edinburgh next day, and make the best bargain he could
in the way of compromise. He went to bed with this resolution, and, with all the
circumstances of the case floating upon his mind, had a dream to the following
purpose: - His father, who had been many years dead, appeared to him, he
thought, and asked him why he was disturbed in his mind. In dreams men are not
surprised at such apparitions. Mr. Rutherfurd thought that he informed his
father of the cause of his distress, adding that the payment of a considerable
sum of money was the more unpleasant to him, because he had a strong
consciousness that it was not due, though he was unable to recover any evidence
in support of his belief. »You are right, my son,« replied, the paternal shade;
»I did acquire right to these teinds, for payment of which you are now
prosecuted. The papers relating to the transaction are in the hands of Mr. --, a
writer (or attorney), who is now retired from professional business, and resides
at Inveresk, near Edinburgh. He was a person whom I employed on that occasion
for