moderate just when its warmth was of most consequence. He talked
much, indeed, of taking the field for the rights of Scotland and Charles Stuart;
but his demi-pique saddle would suit only one of his horses; and that horse
could by no means be brought to stand fire. Perhaps the worshipful owner
sympathized in the scruples of this sagacious quadruped, and began to think,
that what was so much dreaded by the horse could not be very wholesome for the
rider. At any rate, while Sir Anthony Wardour talked, and drank, and hesitated,
the sturdy provost of Fairport (who, as we before noticed, was the father of our
Antiquary) sallied from his ancient burgh, heading a body of whig-burghers, and
seized at once, in the name of George II., upon the Castle of Knockwinnock, and
on the four carriage-horses, and person of the proprietor. Sir Anthony was
shortly after sent off to the Tower of London by a secretary of state's warrant,
and with him went his son, Arthur, then a youth. But as nothing appeared like an
overt act of treason, both father and son were soon set at liberty, and returned
to their own mansion of Knockwinnock, to drink healths five fathoms deep, and
talk of their sufferings in the royal cause. This became so much a matter of
habit with Sir Arthur, that, even after his father's death, the non-juring
chaplain used to pray regularly for the restoration of the rightful sovereign,
for the downfall of the usurper, and for deliverance from their cruel and
bloodthirsty enemies; although all idea of serious opposition to the House of
Hanover had long mouldered away, and this treasonable liturgy was kept up rather
as a matter of form than as conveying any distinct meaning. So much was this the
case, that, about the year 1770, upon a disputed election occurring in the
county, the worthy knight fairly gulped down the oaths of abjuration and
allegiance, in order to serve a candidate in whom he was interested; - thus
renouncing the heir for whose restoration he weekly petitioned Heaven, and
acknowledging the usurper whose dethronement he had never ceased to pray for.
And to add to this melancholy instance of human inconsistency, Sir Arthur
continued to pray for the House of Stuart even after the family had been
extinct, and when, in truth, though in his theoretical loyalty he was pleased to
regard them as alive, yet, in all actual service and practical exertion, he was
a most zealous and devoted subject of George III.
    In other respects, Sir Arthur