d there ane
valziant man, who did him man-service by keeping the croft, or
corn-land, which was tilled for the convenience of the King's household,
and was thence callit Croft-an-ri, that is to say, the King his croft;
quhilk place, though now coverit with biggings, is to this day called
Croftangry, and lyeth near to the royal palace. And whereas that some
of those who bear this auld and honourable name may take scorn that it
ariseth from the tilling of the ground, quhilk men account a slavish
occupation, yet we ought to honour the pleugh and spade, seeing we all
derive our being from our father Adam, whose lot it became to cultivate
the earth, in respect of his fall and transgression.

"Also we have witness, as weel in holy writt as in profane history, of
the honour in quhilk husbandrie was held of old, and how prophets have
been taken from the pleugh, and great captains raised up to defend their
ain countries, sic as Cincinnatus, and the like, who fought not the
common enemy with the less valiancy that their alms had been exercised
in halding the stilts of the pleugh, and their bellicose skill in
driving of yauds and owsen.

"Likewise there are sindry honorable families, quhilk are now of
our native Scottish nobility, and have clombe higher up the brae of
preferment than what this house of Croftangry hath done, quhilk shame
not to carry in their warlike shield and insignia of dignity the tools
and implements the quhilk their first forefathers exercised in labouring
the croft-rig, or, as the poet Virgilius calleth it eloquently, in
subduing the soil, and no doubt this ancient house of Croftangry, while
it continued to be called of that Ilk, produced many worshipful and
famous patriots, of quhom I now praetermit the names; it being my
purpose, if God shall spare me life for sic ane pious officium, or
duty, to resume the first part of my narrative touching the house of
Croftangry, when I can set down at length the evidents and historical
witness anent the facts which I shall allege, seeing that words, when
they are unsupported by proofs, are like seed sown on the naked rocks,
or like an house biggit on the flitting and faithless sands."

Here I stopped to draw breath; for the style of my grandsire, the
inditer of this goodly matter, was rather lengthy, as our American
friends say. Indeed, I reserve the rest of the piece until I can obtain
admission to the Bannatine Club, [This Club, of which the Author of
Waverley has