The Black Dwarf Page 3

  CHAPTER I.

  PRELIMINARY.

  Hast any philosophy in thee, Shepherd?--AS YOU LIKE IT.

  It was a fine April morning (excepting that it had snowed hard the nightbefore, and the ground remained covered with a dazzling mantle of sixinches in depth) when two horsemen rode up to the Wallace Inn. The firstwas a strong, tall, powerful man, in a grey riding-coat, having a hatcovered with waxcloth, a huge silver-mounted horsewhip, boots, anddreadnought overalls. He was mounted on a large strong brown mare, roughin coat, but well in condition, with a saddle of the yeomanry cut, anda double-bitted military bridle. The man who accompanied him wasapparently his servant; he rode a shaggy little grey pony, had a bluebonnet on his head, and a large check napkin folded about his neck, worea pair of long blue worsted hose instead of boots, had his glovelesshands much stained with tar, and observed an air of deference andrespect towards his companion, but without any of those indicationsof precedence and punctilio which are preserved between the gentryand their domestics. On the contrary, the two travellers entered thecourt-yard abreast, and the concluding sentence of the conversationwhich had been carrying on betwixt them was a joint ejaculation, "Lordguide us, an this weather last, what will come o' the lambs!" The hintwas sufficient for my Landlord, who, advancing to take the horse of theprincipal person, and holding him by the reins as he dismounted, whilehis ostler rendered the same service to the attendant, welcomed thestranger to Gandercleugh, and, in the same breath, enquired, "What newsfrom the south hielands?"

  "News?" said the farmer, "bad eneugh news, I think;--an we can carrythrough the yowes, it will be a' we can do; we maun e'en leave the lambsto the Black Dwarfs care."

  "Ay, ay," subjoined the old shepherd (for such he was), shaking hishead, "he'll be unco busy amang the morts this season."

  "The Black Dwarf!" said MY LEARNED FRIEND AND PATRON, Mr. JedediahCleishbotham, "and what sort of a personage may he be?"

  [We have, in this and other instances, printed in italics (CAPITALSin this etext) some few words which the worthy editor, Mr. JedediahCleishbotham, seems to have interpolated upon the text of his deceasedfriend, Mr. Pattieson. We must observe, once for all, that suchliberties seem only to have been taken by the learned gentleman wherehis own character and conduct are concerned; and surely he must be thebest judge of the style in which his own character and conduct should betreated of.]

  "Hout awa, man," answered the farmer, "ye'll hae heard o' Canny Elshiethe Black Dwarf, or I am muckle mistaen--A' the warld tells tales abouthim, but it's but daft nonsense after a'--I dinna believe a word o'tfrae beginning to end."

  "Your father believed it unco stievely, though," said the old man, towhom the scepticism of his master gave obvious displeasure.

  "Ay, very true, Bauldie, but that was in the time o' theblackfaces--they believed a hantle queer things in thae days, thatnaebody heeds since the lang sheep cam in."

  "The mair's the pity, the mair's the pity," said the old man. "Yourfather, and sae I have aften tell'd ye, maister, wad hae been sair vexedto hae seen the auld peel-house wa's pu'd down to make park dykes; andthe bonny broomy knowe, where he liked sae weel to sit at e'en, wi' hisplaid about him, and look at the kye as they cam down the loaning, illwad he hae liked to hae seen that braw sunny knowe a' riven out wi' thepleugh in the fashion it is at this day."

  "Hout, Bauldie," replied the principal, "tak ye that dram the landlord'soffering ye, and never fash your head about the changes o' the warld,sae lang as ye're blithe and bien yoursell."

  "Wussing your health, sirs," said the shepherd; and having taken off hisglass, and observed the whisky was the right thing, he continued, "It'sno for the like o' us to be judging, to be sure; but it was a bonnyknowe that broomy knowe, and an unco braw shelter for the lambs in asevere morning like this."

  "Ay," said his patron, "but ye ken we maun hae turnips for the langsheep, billie, and muckle hard wark to get them, baith wi' the pleughand the howe; and that wad sort ill wi' sitting on the broomy knowe, andcracking about Black Dwarfs, and siccan clavers, as was the gate langsyne, when the short sheep were in the fashion."

  "Aweel, aweel, maister," said the attendant, "short sheep had shortrents, I'm thinking."

  Here my WORTHY AND LEARNED patron again interposed, and observed, "thathe could never perceive any material difference, in point of longitude,between one sheep and another."

  This occasioned a loud hoarse laugh on the part of the farmer, and anastonished stare on the part of the shepherd.

  "It's the woo', man,--it's the woo', and no the beasts themsells, thatmakes them be ca'd lang or short. I believe if ye were to measure theirbacks, the short sheep wad be rather the langer-bodied o' the twa; butit's the woo' that pays the rent in thae days, and it had muckle need."

  "Odd, Bauldie says very true,--short sheep did make short rents--myfather paid for our steading just threescore punds, and it stands me inthree hundred, plack and bawbee.--And that's very true--I hae nae timeto be standing here clavering--Landlord, get us our breakfast, and seean' get the yauds fed--I am for doun to Christy Wilson's, to see if himand me can gree about the luckpenny I am to gie him for his year-aulds.We had drank sax mutchkins to the making the bargain at St. Boswell'sfair, and some gate we canna gree upon the particulars preceesely, foras muckle time as we took about it--I doubt we draw to a plea--But hearye, neighbour," addressing my WORTHY AND LEARNED patron, "if ye want tohear onything about lang or short sheep, I will be back here to my kailagainst ane o'clock; or, if ye want ony auld-warld stories about theBlack Dwarf, and sic-like, if ye'll ware a half mutchkin upon Bauldiethere, he'll crack t'ye like a pen-gun. And I'se gie ye a mutchkinmysell, man, if I can settle weel wi' Christy Wilson."

  The farmer returned at the hour appointed, and with him came ChristyWilson, their difference having been fortunately settled without anappeal to the gentlemen of the long robe. My LEARNED AND WORTHY patronfailed not to attend, both on account of the refreshment promised to themind and to the body, ALTHOUGH HE IS KNOWN TO PARTAKE OF THE LATTER INA VERY MODERATE DEGREE; and the party, with which my Landlord wasassociated, continued to sit late in the evening, seasoning their liquorwith many choice tales and songs. The last incident which I recollect,was my LEARNED AND WORTHY patron falling from his chair, just as heconcluded a long lecture upon temperance, by reciting, from the "GentleShepherd," a couplet, which he RIGHT HAPPILY transferred from the viceof avarice to that of ebriety:

  He that has just eneugh may soundly sleep, The owercome only fashes folk to keep.

  In the course of the evening the Black Dwarf had not been forgotten,and the old shepherd, Bauldie, told so many stories of him, that theyexcited a good deal of interest. It also appeared, though not till thethird punch-bowl was emptied, that much of the farmer's scepticism onthe subject was affected, as evincing a liberality of thinking, and afreedom from ancient prejudices, becoming a man who paid three hundredpounds a-year of rent, while, in fact, he had a lurking belief in thetraditions of his forefathers. After my usual manner, I made fartherenquiries of other persons connected with the wild and pastoral districtin which the scene of the following narrative is placed, and I wasfortunate enough to recover many links of the story, not generallyknown, and which account, at least in some degree, for the circumstancesof exaggerated marvel with which superstition has attired it in the morevulgar traditions.

  [The Black Dwarf, now almost forgotten, was once held a formidablepersonage by the dalesmen of the Border, where he got the blame ofwhatever mischief befell the sheep or cattle. "He was," says Dr. Leyden,who makes considerable use of him in the ballad called the Cowt ofKeeldar, "a fairy of the most malignant order--the genuine NorthernDuergar." The best and most authentic account of this dangerous andmysterious being occurs in a tale communicated to the author by thateminent antiquary, Richard Surtees, Esq. of Mainsforth, author of theHISTORY OF THE BISHOPRIC OF DURHAM.

  According to this well-attested legend, two young Northumbrians wereout on a shooting party, and had plunged deep am
ong the mountainousmoorlands which border on Cumberland. They stopped for refreshment ina little secluded dell by the side of a rivulet. There, after they hadpartaken of such food as they brought with them, one of the party fellasleep; the other, unwilling to disturb his friend's repose, stolesilently out of the dell with the purpose of looking around him, when hewas astonished to find himself close to a being who seemed not to belongto this world, as he was the most hideous dwarf that the sun had evershone on. His head was of full human size, forming a frightful contrastwith his height, which was considerably under four feet. It was thatchedwith no other covering than long matted red hair, like that of the feltof a badger in consistence, and in colour a reddish brown, like the hueof the heather-blossom. His limbs seemed of great strength; nor was heotherwise deformed than from their undue proportion in thickness to hisdiminutive height. The terrified sportsman stood gazing on this horribleapparition, until, with an angry countenance, the being demanded by whatright he intruded himself on those hills, and destroyed their harmlessinhabitants. The perplexed stranger endeavoured to propitiate theincensed dwarf, by offering to surrender his game, as he would to anearthly Lord of the Manor. The proposal only redoubled the offencealready taken by the dwarf, who alleged that he was the lord of thosemountains, and the protector of the wild creatures who found a retreatin their solitary recesses; and that all spoils derived from theirdeath, or misery, were abhorrent to him. The hunter humbled himselfbefore the angry goblin, and by protestations of his ignorance, andof his resolution to abstain from such intrusion in future, at lastsucceeded in pacifying him. The gnome now became more communicative, andspoke of himself as belonging to a species of beings something betweenthe angelic race and humanity. He added, moreover, which could hardlyhave been anticipated, that he had hopes of sharing in the redemption ofthe race of Adam. He pressed the sportsman to visit his dwelling, whichhe said was hard by, and plighted his faith for his safe return. But atthis moment, the shout of the sportsman's companion was heard callingfor his friend, and the dwarf, as if unwilling that more than oneperson should be cognisant of his presence, disappeared as the young manemerged from the dell to join his comrade.

  It was the universal opinion of those most experienced in suchmatters, that if the shooter had accompanied the spirit, he would,notwithstanding the dwarf's fair pretences, have been either torn topieces, or immured for years in the recesses of some fairy hill.

  Such is the last and most authentic account of the apparition of theBlack Dwarf.]