St. Ronans Well | Page 9

meadow-land by the side of the brook, which, when touched by a little
pecuniary necessity, the Lairds of St. Ronan's had disposed of
piecemeal, as the readiest way to portion off a daughter, procure a
commission for the younger son, and the like emergencies. So that Meg
Dods, when she succeeded to her parents, was a considerable heiress,
and, as such, had the honour of refusing three topping-farmers, two
bonnet-lairds, and a horse-couper, who successively made proposals to
her.
Many bets were laid on the horse-couper's success, but the knowing
ones were taken in. Determined to ride the fore-horse herself, Meg
would admit no helpmate who might soon assert the rights of a master;
and so, in single blessedness, and with the despotism of Queen Bess
herself, she ruled all matters with a high hand, not only over her
men-servants and maid-servants, but over the stranger within her gates,
who, if he ventured to oppose Meg's sovereign will and pleasure, or
desire to have either fare or accommodation different from that which
she chose to provide for him, was instantly ejected with that answer
which Erasmus tells us silenced all complaints in the German inns of
his time, Quære aliud hospitium;[I-3] or, as Meg expressed it, "Troop
aff wi' ye to another public." As this amounted to a banishment in
extent equal to sixteen miles from Meg's residence, the unhappy party
on whom it was passed, had no other refuge save by deprecating the
wrath of his landlady, and resigning himself to her will. It is but justice
to Meg Dods to state, that though hers was a severe and almost despotic

government, it could not be termed a tyranny, since it was exercised,
upon the whole, for the good of the subject.
The vaults of the old Laird's cellar had not, even in his own day, been
replenished with more excellent wines; the only difficulty was to
prevail on Meg to look for the precise liquor you chose;--to which it
may be added, that she often became restiff when she thought a
company had had "as much as did them good," and refused to furnish
any more supplies. Then her kitchen was her pride and glory; she
looked to the dressing of every dish herself, and there were some with
which she suffered no one to interfere. Such were the cock-a-leeky, and
the savoury minced collops, which rivalled in their way even the veal
cutlets of our old friend Mrs. Hall, at Ferrybridge. Meg's table-linen,
bed-linen, and so forth, were always home-made, of the best quality,
and in the best order; and a weary day was that to the chambermaid in
which her lynx eye discovered any neglect of the strict cleanliness
which she constantly enforced. Indeed, considering Meg's country and
calling, we were never able to account for her extreme and scrupulous
nicety, unless by supposing that it afforded her the most apt and
frequent pretext for scolding her maids; an exercise in which she
displayed so much eloquence and energy, that we must needs believe it
to have been a favourite one.[I-4]
We have only further to commemorate, the moderation of Meg's
reckonings, which, when they closed the banquet, often relieved the
apprehensions, instead of saddening the heart, of the rising guest. A
shilling for breakfast, three shillings for dinner, including a pint of old
port, eighteenpence for a snug supper--such were the charges of the inn
of St. Ronan's, under this landlady of the olden world, even after the
nineteenth century had commenced; and they were ever tendered with
the pious recollection, that her good father never charged half so much,
but these weary times rendered it impossible for her to make the lawing
less.[I-5]
Notwithstanding all these excellent and rare properties, the inn at Saint
Ronan's shared the decay of the village to which it belonged. This was
owing to various circumstances. The high-road had been turned aside

from the place, the steepness of the street being murder (so the
postilions declared) to their post-horses. It was thought that Meg's stern
refusal to treat them with liquor, or to connive at their exchanging for
porter and whisky the corn which should feed their cattle, had no small
influence on the opinion of those respectable gentlemen, and that a
little cutting and levelling would have made the ascent easy enough;
but let that pass. This alteration of the highway was an injury which
Meg did not easily forgive to the country gentlemen, most of whom she
had recollected when children. "Their fathers," she said, "wad not have
done the like of it to a lone woman." Then the decay of the village itself,
which had formerly contained a set of feuars and bonnet-lairds, who,
under the name of the Chirupping Club, contrived to drink twopenny,
qualified with brandy