that they were generous, resolute, liberal, and of courage, we must also admit that they were warm, thoughtless, and a good deal overbearing to many, but by no means to all, of the peasantry with whom they came in contact.  From the ample scale on which their farming was conducted, and in consequence of the vast number of men they necessarily had occasion to employ, they could not but detect among them many instances both of falsehood, dishonesty, and ingratitude.  These vices at their hands never received any favor.  So far from that, those whom they detected in the commission of them, were instantly turned adrift, Very often after having received a sound horse-whipping.  Much abuse also occurred between them and the country people with reference to land, and especially tithes, in which they gave back word for word, and too frequently met concealed or implied threats either by instant chastisement or open defiance; the result of all was, as the reader may perceive, that they had the worst and least scrupulous, and consequently, most dangerous class of persons in the country for their enemies.  The name of the elder was John, and the younger Alick; and, soothe to say, two finer-looking, more spirited, or determined young fellows could not be found probably in the kingdom.  The relative position, then, in which they and the people, or rather the worst class of them, stood to each other, and the bitter disparaging taunts and observations with which the proctor and his sons were treated, not only on the chapel green, but almost wherever they appeared, are now, we trust, intelligible to the reader.

Of the daughters, Mary and Julia, we have not so much to observe.  They were both very beautiful; and, as we have already said, highly accomplished.  Both, too, were above the middle height and sizes, and remarkable for the singular elegance and symmetry of their figures.  Mary, the eldest, was a dark beauty, with a neck and bosom like snow, and hair black as the raven’s wing; whilst Julia, on the contrary, was fair, and if possible, more exquisitely rounded than her sister.  Her eyes, of a blue gray, were remarkable for an expression of peculiar depth and softness, whilst Mary’s dark brown were full at once of a mellow and penetrating light.  In other respects they resembled each other very much, both being about the same height and size, and altogether of a similar bearing and figure.  Mary’s complexion was evidently inherited from her mother, who was, at the opening of our narrative, a black-haired, handsome woman, with a good deal of determination about her mouth and brow, but with a singularly benevolent expression when she smiled.  She, too, had received a good, plain education, and was one of those naturally well-mannered women who, whilst they are borne forward into greater respectability by the current of prosperity, can assume, without effort, the improved tone of better society to which they are raised.