Waverley, Volume I

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1830 Excerpt: ...and such like as are tried at 'sizes, than a place for any Christian cattle.jQuery214048630447141511013_1545374224945 Above these dungeon-look-ing stables were granaries, called girnels, and other offices, to which there was access by outside stairs of heavy masonry. Two battle-mented walls, one of which faced the avenue, and the other divided the court from the gar-den, completed the inclosure. It was not without its ornaments. I.n one corner was a tun-bellied pigeon-house, of great size and rotundity, resembling in figure and proportion the curious edifice called Arthur's Oven, which would have turned the brains of all the antiquaries in England, had not the worthy proprietor pulled it down for the sake of mending a neighbouring dam-dyke. This dove-cote, or columbarium, as the owner called it, was no small resource to a Scottish laird of this period, whose scanty rents were eked out by the contributions levied upon the farms by these light foragers, and the con******ions exacted from the latter for the benefit of the table. Another corner of the court displayed a fountain, where a huge bear, carved in stone, predominated over a large stone bason, into which he disgorged the water. This work of art was the wonder of the country ten miles round. It must not be forgotten, that all sorts of bears, small and large, demi or in full proportion, were carved over tue windows, upon the ends of the gables, terminated the spouts, and supported the turrets, with the ancient family motto, BawAn THE BAR,?? cut under each hyperborean form. The court was spacious, well paved, and perfectly clean, there being probably another entrance behind the stables for removing the litter. Every thing around appeared solitary, and would have been silent, but, for the continued splashing of therfouutain;...