na--they were up
in the morning--had their parritch, wi' maybe a thimblefull of brandy,
and then awa up into the hills, eat their bit cauld meat on the heather,
and came hame at e'en with the creel full of caller trouts, and had them
to their dinner, and their quiet cogue of ale, and their drap punch, and
were set singing their catches and glees, as they ca'd them, till ten
o'clock, and then to bed, wi' God bless ye--and what for no?"

Thirdly, we may commemorate some ranting blades, who also came from the
metropolis to visit Saint Ronan's, attracted by the humours of Meg, and
still more by the excellence of her liquor, and the cheapness of her
reckonings. These were members of the Helter Skelter Club, of the
Wildfire Club, and other associations formed for the express purpose of
getting rid of care and sobriety. Such dashers occasioned many a racket
in Meg's house, and many a _bourasque_ in Meg's temper. Various were the
arts of flattery and violence by which they endeavoured to get supplies
of liquor, when Meg's conscience told her they had had too much already.
Sometimes they failed, as when the croupier of the Helter Skelter got
himself scalded with the mulled wine, in an unsuccessful attempt to coax
this formidable virago by a salute; and the excellent president of the
Wildfire received a broken head from the keys of the cellar, as he
endeavoured to possess himself of these emblems of authority. But little
did these dauntless officials care for the exuberant frolics of Meg's
temper, which were to them only "pretty Fanny's way"--the _dulces
Amaryllidis irae_. And Meg, on her part, though she often called them
"drunken ne'er-do-weels, and thoroughbred High-street blackguards,"
allowed no other person to speak ill of them in her hearing. "They were
daft callants," she said, "and that was all--when the drink was in, the
wit was out--ye could not put an auld head upon young shouthers--a young
cowt will canter, be it up-hill or down--and what for no?" was her
uniform conclusion.

Nor must we omit, among Meg's steady customers, "faithful amongst the
unfaithful found," the copper-nosed sheriff-clerk of the county, who,
when summoned by official duty to that district of the shire, warmed by
recollections of her double-brewed ale, and her generous Antigua, always
advertised that his "Prieves," or "Comptis," or whatever other business
was in hand, were to proceed on such a day and hour, "within the house
of Margaret Dods, v