Page:Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry - 1887.djvu/41

Rh to scorn those who honour the fair and the brave. Had I known that the ancient lovers, about whom we so often sing, slept by this lonely stream, I would have sought Cumberland for the fairest and rarest flowers to shower on their grassy beds." "I well believe thee, youth," said the old dame, mollified at once by my respect for the surname of Selby; "how could I forget the altar of Lanercost and thee? There are few at thy wilful and froward time of life who would not mock the poor wandering woman, and turn her wayward affections into ridicule; but I see thy respect for her sitting shining in those sweet and moist eyes of hazel."

While she indulged in this language she replaced her long white locks under her bonnet, resumed her mantle and her staff, and, having adjusted all to her liking, and taken a look at the two graves, and at the raven, who still maintained his seat on the summit of the bush, she addressed me again: "But, come, youth, come—the sun is fast walking down the side of the western mountains: Fremmet-ha' is a good mile distant, and we shall be wise to seek the friendship of its porch with an unset sun above our heads." She took my hand, and, exerting an energy I little expected, we descended the glen together, keeping company with the brook, which received and acknowledged, by an augmented murmur, the accession of several lesser streams. At length we came where the glen, suddenly expanding into a beautiful vale, and the brook into a small, deep, and clear lake, disclosed to my sight the whole domestic establishment of one of the patriarchal portioners of the mountainous regions of Cumberland.

On the northern side of the valley, and fronting the midday sun, stood a large old-fashioned house, constructed of rough and undressed stones, such as are found in abundance on the northern uplands, and roofed with a heavy coating of heath, near by an ell in thickness; the whole secured with bands of wood and ropes of flax, in a manner that resembled the checks of a Highland plaid. Something which imitated a shepherd's crook and a sheathed sword was carved on a piece of hewn stone in the front, and underneath was cut in rude square raised letters, "Randal Rode, 1545." The remains of old defences were still visible to a person of an antiquarian turn; but sheep-folds, cattle-folds, and swine-pens usurped the trench and the rampart, and filled the whole southern side of the valley. In the middle