Sir Mungo, who was an admirer of good cheer,--a taste which, by the
way, might have some weight in reconciling his dignity to these city
visits,--was tolled off by the sound, and left Nigel and the other
guests in peace, until his anxiety to arrange himself in his due place
of pre-eminence at the genial board was duly gratified. Here, seated
on the left hand of Aunt Judith, he beheld Nigel occupy the station of
yet higher honour on the right, dividing that matron from pretty
Mistress Margaret; but he saw this with the more patience, that there
stood betwixt him and the young lord a superb larded capon.
The dinner proceeded according to the form of the times. All was
excellent of the kind; and, besides the Scottish cheer promised, the
board displayed beef and pudding, the statutory dainties of Old
England. A small cupboard of plate, very choicely and beautifully
wrought, did not escape the compliments of some of the company, and an
oblique sneer from Sir Mungo, as intimating the owner's excellence in
his own mechanical craft.
"I am not ashamed of the workmanship, Sir Mungo," said the honest
citizen. "They say, a good cook knows how to lick his own fingers;
and, methinks, it were unseemly that I, who have furnished half the
cupboards in broad Britain, should have my own covered with paltry
pewter."
The blessing of the clergyman now left the guests at liberty to attack
what was placed before them; and the meal went forward with great
decorum, until Aunt Judith, in farther recommendation of the capon,
assured her company that it was of a celebrated breed of poultry,
which she had herself brought from Scotland.
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