The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-01


 on a real happening in the family of James Dalrymple, first Lord Stair. 1t IS another proof of the old truism that no ina ginatlon can conceive situations more wonderful than real life produces. If the incident of the wedding night were not a part of established history. Scott no doubt would have been criticised many times for having introduced so wild and I'm probable a scene in his story.
 Apart from this which is really the &C., tuating motive of the whole book, the au- thor has given the world a famous char aeter in Caleb Balderstone, the seneschal of Wolfs Graz, whose fierce soncitude for the proud name of his adored house of Ravenswood leads him into the most amazing subterfuges to hide the poverty of the castle.
 For the rest, "The Bride of Hammer moor Is hardly novel but rather most fascinating story whose many incidents play only loosely around the two central figures, Lucy Ashton and Edgar Ravens wood. There is lack of the intimate in teraction of incidents and characters that is needed to make a novel; but this fact foes not detract from the value of the story, though the book has little of the changing lights and the glowing wool of such of Scott's novels as "Ivanhoe, The Heart of Midlothian" etc.
 
 mandng the road between the Merse 4 and the Lotkiaus, in southeastern Scotland, there stood through many cen turies a great castle whose owners, the Lords of Ravenswood, were of a race Of powerful barons intermarred with the Douglasses, Swintons, Hayes and most other families whose history is woven into that of Scotland. But the family gradu- ally fell from its high estate. By the middle of the seventeenth century the castle had declined greatly from its splen- dor, and toward the period of the Revolu- ton the last proprietor was compelled to remove himself to Wolf's Graz, the last remaining possession of his family, a sea- beaten, lonely tower facing the bleak Ger man ocean.
 There he dwelt bitter, vindictivc. giving himself up to hatred of men and of one man particularly-Sr William Ashton, who had become the owner of the Castle of Ravenswood after many involved pe- cuniary transactions with Lord Ravens wood.
 Sir William Ashton was descended from family much less ancient than that of the Ravenswoods, having risen to wealth and importance only during the civil wars. Sir William had been trained to the bar and had held high offices, maintaining through life the profitable position of 2 fisher in troubled waters till he had at tained at last to the high rank of Lord Keeper
 He had been helped materially in his ufif rGA nf a greater family than his, and who ruled all about her with only one object in her mind-that of satisfying her ambition for rank and her lust forpower, at any cost.
 Fearless and imperious, with the hot blood of the Douslasses in her veins, she noted with disdain the storm of hatred that Tapped around her husbands ears when he took possession of the ancient estates and she sneered at the fury of Ravenswood. Her husband never bold man at best did not share Lady Asht ons S naughty contempt of the Ravenswoods, but listened with perturbed spirit to the dark sayings of the countryside and to the grim tales told by the ald gossips of the black vengeances and bloody deeds of the fallen house.
 His fear was not lessened by the death of Lord Ravenswood. His lordshp cx- pired breathing curses against the usur- per and his son listened to them as if they conveyed to him legacy of ven geance. At the funeral, which was sur rounded with pomp to which the living man had long been a stranger, ar of- ficer of the law, bearing a warrant signed by the Lord Keeper, tried to prevent the conduct of the services by an Episcopal clergyman. which was contrary to the law of the time.
 Immediately young Edgar Ravenswood had out his sword and hundred others flashed response in the hands of his cav- alier kinsmen and friends
 The next day the outraged officer laid his story before the Lord Keeper, with the additional information as to the menaces fin which the angry party had indulged after the funeral The Lord Keeper saw that the young master of Ravenswood, by his own utterances no less than those of his friends, had delivered himself into his hands, for they had spoken open trea- son against the ruling party of Scotland, WHlCn lHt Cdfdlltl udltu fDOSl cordially.
 Yet Sir William Ashton hestated about laying the information before his col leagues of the privy council He was op- pressed by the crest of the family, that looked on him from all parts of the castle, the black bulls head with the sinister legend: "I bide my time'' Despite his anxiety to remove the last of the Ravens woods from his path, he dared not take the stcisive step.
 lis indecsIon was enhanced by the ab- sence of his wife, who would have seized on the opportunity without a moments hesitation As it was the Lord Keeper pondered, bewildered between two issues: one, the ever-present danger that the master of Ravenswood might gain the ear of the British House of Peers, winch, under the treaty of union had jurisdic- ton over many Scottish matters and which would be all too willing to restore the estates to the kavenswoods; and .ie other, the still more imminent danger of bodily harm from the fiery, gloomy young nobleman who was known to fear noth- {~,e