Page:The Monastery, Volume 1 - Scott (1820).djvu/30

"What the de'il wad ye hae me do, Captain?" answered mine host; "a gentleman lights down, and asks me in a most earnest manner, what man of sense and learning there is about our town, that can tell him about the antiquities of the place, and specially about the auld Abbey—Ye wadna hae me tell the gentleman a lie, and ye ken weel eneugh there is naebody in the town can say a reasonable word about it, be it no yoursel', except the bedral, and he is as fou as a piper by this time. So, says I, there's Captain Clutterbuck, that's a very civil gentleman, and has little to do forbye telling a' the auld cracks about the Abbey, and dwells just hard bye. Then says the gentleman to me, 'Sir,' says he, very civilly, 'have the goodness to step to Captain Clutterbuck with my compliments, and say I am a stranger, who have been led to these parts chiefly by the fame of these Ruins, and that I would call upon him, but the hour is late.' And mair he said that I have forgotten, but I weel remember