It is not by any means to be inferred, that the
living person resembled the imaginary one in the course of life
ascribed to him, or in his personal attributes. But his fortune was
little adequate to his rank and the antiquity of his family; and, to
avenge himself of this disparity, the worthy baronet lost no
opportunity of making the more avowed sons of fortune feel the edge of
his satire. This he had the art of disguising under the personal
infirmity of deafness, and usually introduced his most severe things
by an affected mistake of what was said around him. For example, at a
public meeting of a certain county, this worthy gentleman had chosen
to display a laced coat, of such a pattern as had not been seen in
society for the better part of a century. The young men who were
present amused themselves with rallying him on his taste, when he
suddenly singled out one of the party:--"Auld d'ye think my coat--
auld-fashioned?--indeed it canna be new; but it was the wark of a braw
tailor, and that was your grandfather, who was at the head of the
trade in Edinburgh about the beginning of last century." Upon another
occasion, when this type of Sir Mungo Malagrowther happened to hear a
nobleman, the high chief of one of those Border clans who were accused
of paying very little attention in ancient times to the distinctions
of _Meum_ and _Tuum,_ addressing a gentleman of the same name, as if
conjecturing there should be some relationship between them, he
volunteered to ascertain the nature of the connexion by saying, that
the "chief's ancestors had _stolen_ the cows, and the other
gentleman's ancestors had _killed_ them,"--fame ascribing the origin
of the latter family to a butcher.
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