The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-03 00:00:00

A HIGHLAND FEUD.

(From Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grandfisther,

Second Series.)

The Farquharsons of I)ec side, a bold and
warlike people, inhabiting the dales of Braemar,
had taken offence at, and slain, a gentleman of
consequence, named Gordon of Brackley. The
Marquis of Huntly summoned his forces, to take
a bloody vengeance for the death of a Gordon ;
and that none of the guilty tribe might escape,
communicated with the Laird of Grant, a very
powerful chief, who was an ally of Huntly, and a
relation, I believe, to the slain Baron of Brack-
ley. They agreed, that, on a day appointed,
Grant, with his clan in arms, should occupy the
upper end of the vale of Dee, while the Gordons
should ascend the river from beneath, each
party killing, burning, and destroying, without
mercy, whatever and whomsoever they found be-
fore them. A terrible massacre was made among
the Farquharsons, taken at unawares, and placed
betwixt two enemies. Almost ail the men and
women of the race were slain, and when the day
was done, Huntly found himself encumbered
with about two hundred orphan children, whose
parents had been killed. About a year after
this foray, the Laird of Grant chanced to dine
at the Marquis's castle. Ile was, of course, re-
ceived with kindness, and entertained with mag-
nificence. After dinner was over, Huntly said
to his guest, that he would chew him some rare
sport. Accordingly, he conducted Grant to a
balcony, which, as was frequent in old mansions,
overlooked the kitchen, perhaps to permit the
lady to give an occasional eye to the operations
there. The numerous servants of the Marquis
and his visitors had already dined, and Grant
beheld all the remains of the victuals flung at
random into a large trough, like that out of
which swine feed. While Grant was wondering
what this could mean, the master cook bare a
signal with his silver whistle ; on which a hatch,
like that of a dog-kennel, was raised, and there
rushed into the kitchen, some shrieking, some
shouting, some yelling—not a pack of hounds,
which, m number, noise, and tumult, they greatly
resembled—but a huge mob of children, half
naked, and totally wild in their manners, who
threw themselves on the contents of the trough,
and fought, struggled, and clamoured. each to
get
the largest share. Grant was a man of hu-
manity, and did not see in that degrading scene
all the amusement which his noble host had in-
tended to afford him, In the name of Heaven,"
he said, " who are these unfortunate creatures
that are fed like so many pigs ?" " They are the
children of those Farquharsons whom we slew
last year on the Dee side," answered Huntly.
The laird felt more shocked than it would have
been prudent or polite to express. "My lord,"
he said, " my sword helped to make these poor
children orphans, and it is not fair that your
lordship should be burdened with all the expellee
of maintaining them. You have supported them
for a year and a day—allow me now to take
them to Castle Grant, and keep them for the
same time at my cost." Iluntly was tired of the
joke of the pig-trough, and willingly consented
to have the undisciplined rabble of children taken
off his hands. He troubled himself no more
about them ; and the Laird of Grant, carrying
them to his castle, had them dispersed among his
clan, and brought up decently, giving them his
own name of Grant ; but it is said their descen-
dants are still called the Race of the Trough, to
distinguish them from the families of the tribe
into which they were adopted.

ROAD-MAKING.—The spirit of improve-
ment in this important department of civil engineering is
not confined to this metropolis, but is especially observable
on the great northern avenue front London through High-
gate.
Three distinct processes are going- on in the neigh-
bourhood of the archway; two of which arc especially
worthy sf notice. One consists of a solid and entire sur-
face of Roman cement, forming a massive and water-tight
covering ; and the other is composed of bricks, baked in
the ordinary way, and laid in such a way as to insure a
perfect drainage. The first plan, if well executed, is ob-
viously the most durable, and bids fair to furnish a road as
perfect and as lasting as the military ways constructed by
the Romans.

G UILDIIALL.

TUNNICI.IFFE v. COMI.--In this case Mr. Ca
--Timothy Cobb, we believe--was charged with
having pushed, choked, punched, and otherwise
maltreated a Mr. Ralph Tunnicliffe, of Long-lane,
West Smithfield; to which charge Mr. Timothy
Cobb replied, that the said pushings, chokings, and
j
punchings, were " ustiy)le under the circum-
stances;" and thereupon issue was joined.
Mr. Tunnicliffe then detailed what he called the
" particularities of the circiunstancei ;" and they ap-
peared to be thus Mr. Tunnicliffe, is a house-
holder and " a man what doesn't like to be disturbed
ii) his sleep," Mr. Timothy Cobb, on the contrary,
is no householder, and a man who doesn't care,
whose sleep he disturbs. Mr. Tunnicliffe " keeps
lodgers," and his lodgers keep such a clatter about
his ears that he can get no rest for them. Among
these lodgers of his are a Mr. and Mrs. Barnett, and
they give him more trouble than all the rest, for Mr.
and Mrs. Burnett are frequently visited by Mr. T.
Cobb, and whenever Mr. Timothy Cobb visited
Mr. and Mrs. -Barnett, Mr. and Mrs. Barnett are
sure to quarrel, and sometimes fight for two or three
hours after Mr. Timothy Cobh has left them. What
they quarrelled about, or why they always quar-
relled after receiving a visit from Mr. Timothy Cobb,
Mr. Tunnicliffe did not know; perhaps it might b e
gin, or perhaps it might be jealousy, or perhaps it
might be both gin and jealousy : but whatever it
was, it kept M r. and Mrs. Barnett clapper-clawing each
other till three or four o'clock in the morning, and kept
Mr. Tunnicliffe tossing arid tumbling about in his bed,
unable to get a " wink of sleep," and therefore be
hated to see Mr. Timothy Cobb come into the
house. Matters went on in this uncomfortable way
up to last Monday night, when Mr. Timothy Cobb
again presented himself, saying he wished to see
Mr. and Mrs. Barnett. Mr. Tunnicliffe told him be
could not see them, for they were going to bed, but
ll'hether they were going to bed or not, he, Mr.Tun-
nicliffe, was determined that he, Mr. Timothy Cobb,
should not go up to " their department" that night.
" The d—l I shu'n't!" replied Mr. Timothy Cobb,
" then here he goes for a try !" and so saying lie
capsized Mr. Tunnicliffe with a single push, and be-
gun scampering up stairs; but before he could
scamper to the top of the first flight, Mr. Tunni-
cliffe caught him by the hindermost leg, and pulled
him down again. Whereupon Mr. Timothy Cobb
grappled Mr. Tunnicliffe by the collar, and choked
him and punched him to such a degree, that Mr.
Tunnicliffe was fain to call in the watch, and send
Mr. Timothy Cobb to the Compter. This was
Mr. Tunnicliffe's case.

Mr. Timothy Cobb, in his reply, said, " In the
first place, your Worship, I wish you to consider
that Mr. Tunnicliffe keeps an open shop ; arid as
such I consider that I had as good a right to go into
it as any other man, woman, or child what-some-
soever. In the next place, when I went in, Mr.
Tunnicliffe said to me, says he, ' Mr. Cobb,'
says he, this is a very untimely time of night.'
' Very good, Mr. Tunnicliffe,' says I know
it is; Isla I'm not going to stay two mi-
nutes ; and besides,' says I, ' my little girl is up
stairs, and I'm come to take her home,' I don't
care,' says he, you shan't go up stairs.' Very
good,' says but I must.' So I pushed him
aside, and up stairs I went; and I'll leave you to
judgo whether I could have capsized him, as he says;
for before I had got up half a dozen stairs, he caught
me by the leg and pulled me slap down again.
' What are you going to do with me, Mr. Tunni-
entre ?' says I; but instead of making me a decent
answer, he kept pulling away at my leg; and if I
hadn't clung round his neck I verily believe my own
neck Nvould have been broken. And that's all I
did--I only clung round his Deck to save myself;
and for that he gave me in charge to the watchman,
and I've been shut up in the Compter all night."
Mr. Alderman GARRATT told Mr. Tunnicliffe
that he had done wrong. "If your lodgers were
troublesome to you," said his Worship, " you should
have got rid of them instead of pulling their visiter
down stairs by the leg."
Mr. Tunnicliffe replied, that he had given them
notice to quit. And, thereupon, Mr. Timothy Cobb
was discharged, upon his promise not to visit them
again so long as they remained in the house of Mr.
Tunnicliffe.