Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 217: what you’re looking at

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a 204 curious wig, of so many shades lighter than brown that it very nearly approached a flaxen tint—and so ill-constructed that it looked like an assemblage of matted tow—protected his head. He had not the slightest appearance of a whisker: his counte- nance was broad and round, and so fat that the double chin, by completely overlapping his low white cravat, gave him the appearance of wearing none at all. He was short and exceedingly stout —waddling in his gait, and at all times having the appearance as if rendered unsteady by strong liquor. This was not however the fact : for though | Lochiel. JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. tutor, though far from a bright genius, was per- fectly well capable of teaching the classics, history, mathematics, and geography; and these consti- tuted the sum-total of the education which Inch Methglin deemed necessary for the son of a High- land Chief to acquire. When that education was perfected,—if perfection it might be termed, which was sufficiently circumscribed in the branches it embraced,—the Chief would not part with Dominie Clackmannan, but retained him at the mansion to render him useful in the instruction of Ivor and For a few years the worthy Dominie exceedingly addicted to good eating, he was tem-| managed to rub on with the two boys: but latterly perate enough in his drinking. He was an easy, | he had become so heavy, so sleepy, and so little simple-minded, good-natured man—utterly igno- | capable of doing justice to the duties required at rant of the world at large—and so unsuspicious of others, that when he heard of any one whom he knew doing anything to provoke his Chief’s ire, he would sit wondering with an air of grave stupidity upon the matter for hourstogether. His look was indeed always that of a sort of stolid seriousness : he had no conversation, properly so called: but he frequently threw in short, lazily uttered, ejaculatory comments on what was being said in his presence ; and these were for the most part to imply assent to whatsoever fell from the lips of the Chief. And yet Mr. Clackmannan was no toadying, fawning, lickspittle parasite : he was quite independent after his own fashion, and believed himself a necessary adjunct to the family circle at Inch Methglin—as the reader will presently see. I should further observe, in respect to his conversation—if such it could, by any stretch of fancy, be called—that he had a habit of commencing anecdotes, but was never in all his life known to finish one. He either lost the thread, and stopped short of his own accord—or else was interrupted by others striking into the discourse. He was never fond of any reading save the classics or other school-books ; and latterly he did not read at all—but dozed away his life in a sort of dormouse kind of ease and com- fort. That is to say, he lounged in an arm-chair by the fire-side in winter, or upon a bench near the water’s edge in the summer—save when seated at table, and then he could display a*most unmis- takable vitality as a good trencherman. His in- variable costume was a black suit,—consisting of a square-tailed dress coat, a waistcoat with capacious pockets—one to contain his snuff-box, and the other his tobacco-box, for he was fond of smoking—knee- breeches and gaiters; so that he had a sort of clerical or scholastic appearance. There was a huge silver watch in his fob, whence depended a gold chain with an incalculable number of seals and keys. T should now observe that ,Mr. Vennachar had been married twice. The issue of his first matri- monial venture was Lennox, his heir, and whom I have already described. The mother of Lennox died soon after his birth. Years passed, during which the Chief remained single—until at length he contracted a second marriage, the fruit of which were two more sons. But shortly after the second was born, Inch Methglin had again become a widower. At the time I entered his service the two young gentlemen, who were called Ivor and Lochiel, had respectively attained the ages of twelve and ten. Dominie Clackmannan was first introduced to the mansion of Inch Methglin as preceptor for the then youthful Lennox. The | his hands, that Mr. Vennachar saw the necessity of placing him on the shelf and providing his sons with a younger and more capable preceptor. Thus was it that with true Highland hospitality Inch Methglin bade the Dominie remain for ever be- neath his roof, and generously made the old man believe that so far from its being an act of charity he (the Chief) was performing, he had grown so attached and accustomed to him he could not pos- sibly think of suffermg him to depart. Dominie Clackmannan — whose perception, never of the keenest, had become blunted by the heaviness of good-living and the laziness of the life he led—took it for granted that the reasons assigned by Inch Methelin were the true ones: and he had there- fore no compunction in remaining an inmate of the mansion, — having board and lodging for nothing, and an income of one hundred and fifty pounds a-year as pocket-money to boot. But then, in justice to Mr. Clackmannan, it must be ob- served that he was devotedly attached to the family amongst which he lived. He looked upon Inch Methglin as the greatest man on the face of the earth—upon Lennox as the handsomest, and the most dauntless in field.sports—upon Emmeline as a being to whom Paris would have assigned the apple of discord, if she had been a competitrix with Juno, Minerva, and Venus—and upon the two boys as the most promising olive branches that ever could gladden a parent’s eyes. And lastly, the worthy Dominie looked upon Inch Methglin’s table as the best at which it could pos- sibly be the good fortune of any human being to sit down. All these circumstances which I have now re- lated, were not, as a matter of course, known to me at the instant that I stood in the drawing- room at Inch Methglin for the first time: but I have thought it better to place them all on record here, so that they may be read in the same place with the personal descriptions themselves. The moment I made my appearance, Mr. Vennachar began to survey me with considerable attention, though with a certain air of loftiness—which was habitual with him. I had no doubt that, though as a matter of course the Earl of Mandeville had been careful not to mention a single syllable in respect to his daughter Calanthe’s love for me, he had nevertheless recommended me most strongly to Mr. Vennachar’s consideration. Indeed, the letter received by me at Ryde, had intimated this much. I therefore concluded that it was in consequence of these strong recommendations I immediately became an object of more interest in the eyes of the high and mighty Chief of Inch Methghn, then (COUM Goo <S (EO) im