Earl of Douglas and Lord of Galloway
(one of those tremendous lords whose coronets counterpoised
the Scottish crown), to Henry de Haliburton, whom he
designates as his standard-bearer, on account of his service
to the earl in England. On this account the Haliburtons of
Mertoun and those of Newmains, in addition to the arms borne
by the Haliburtons of Dirleton (the ancient chiefs of that
once great and powerful, but now almost extinguished
name)--viz. _or_, on a bend _azure_, three mascles of the
first--gave the distinctive bearing of a buckle of the second
in the sinister canton. These arms still appear on various
old tombs in the abbeys of Melrose and Dryburgh, as well as
on their house at Dryburgh, which was built in 1572."--_MS.
Memorandum_, 1820. Sir Walter was served heir to these
Haliburtons soon after the date of this Memorandum, and
thenceforth quartered the arms above described with those of
his paternal family.]

I need scarcely remind the reader of the exquisite description of the
poet's grandfather, in the Introduction to the third canto of
Marmion--

----"the thatched mansion's gray-hair'd sire,
Wise without learning, plain and good,
And sprang of Scotland's gentler blood;
Whose {p.061} eye, in age quick, clear, and keen,
Showed what in youth its glance had been;
Whose doom discording neighbors sought,
Content with equity unbought."

In the Preface to Guy Mannering, we have an anecdote of Robert Scott
in his earlier days: "My grandfather, while riding over Charterhouse
Moor, then a very extensive common, fell suddenly among a large band
of gypsies, who were carousing in a hollow surrounded by bushes. They
instantly seized on his bridle with shouts of welcome, exclaiming that
they had often dined at his expense, and he must now stay and share
their cheer. My ancestor was a little alarmed, for he had more money
about his person than he cared to risk in such society. However, being
naturally a bold, lively spirited man, he entered into the humor of
the thing, and sat down to the feast, which consisted of all the
varieties of game, poultry, pigs, and so forth, that could be
collected by a wide and indiscriminate system of plunder. The dinner
was a very merry one, but my relative got a hint from