e county of Devon
(the Damnonia of the Romans, if we can trust Robert of Cirencester). He
is, as ye may well suppose from such a tendency, but of yeoman
extraction--servabit odorem testa diu--and I believe, between ourselves,
his grandsire was from the wrong side of the Border--one Bullsegg, who
came hither as a steward, or bailiff, or ground-officer, or something in
that department, to the last Girnigo of Killancureit, who died of an
atrophy. After his master's death, sir,--ye would hardly believe such a
scandal,--but this Bullsegg, being portly and comely of aspect,
intermarried with the lady dowager, who was young and amorous, and
possessed himself of the estate, which devolved on this unhappy woman by
a settlement of her umwhile husband, in direct contravention of an
unrecorded taillie, and to the prejudice of the disponer's own flesh and
blood, in the person of his natural heir and seventh cousin, Girnigo of
Tipperhewit, whose family was so reduced by the ensuing law-suit, that
his representative is now serving as a private gentleman-sentinel in the
Highland Black Watch. But this gentleman, Mr. Bullsegg of Killancureit
that now is, has good blood in his veins by the mother and grandmother,
who were both of the family of Pickletillim, and he is well liked and
looked upon, and knows his own place. And God forbid, Captain Waverley,
that we of irreproachable lineage should exult over him, when it may be,
that in the eighth, ninth, or tenth generation, his progeny may rank, in
a manner, with the old gentry of the country. Rank and ancestry, sir,
should be the last words in the mouths of us of unblemished race--vix ea
nostra voco, as Naso saith. There is, besides, a clergyman of the true
(though suffering) Episcopal church of Scotland. [Footnote: See Note 9.]
He was a confessor in her cause after the year 1715, when a Whiggish mob
destroyed his meeting-house, tore his surplice, and plundered his
dwelling-house of four silver spoons, intromitting also with his mart and
his mealark, and with two barrels, one of single and one of double ale,
besides three bottles of brandy. My baron-bailie and doer, Mr. Duncan
Macwheeble, is the fourth on our list. There is a question, owing to the
incertitude of ancient orthography, whether he belongs to the clan of
Wheedle or of Quibble, but both have produced persons eminent in the
law.'--

As such he described them by person and name,
They enter'd, and dinner was served as they came.