The ceremony was closed with the
discharge of pistols; then we returned to the castle, resumed the
bottle, and by midnight there was not a sober person in the
family, the females excepted. The 'squire and I were, with some
difficulty, permitted to retire with our landlord in the evening;
but our entertainer was a little chagrined at our retreat; and
afterwards seemed to think it a disparagement to his family, that
not above a hundred gallons of whisky had been drunk upon such a
solemn occasion. This morning we got up by four, to hunt the
roebuck, and, in half an hour, found breakfast ready served in
the hall. The hunters consisted of Sir George Colquhoun and me,
as strangers (my uncle not chusing to be of the party), of the
laird in person, the laird's brother, the laird's brother's son,
the laird's sister's son, the laird's father's brother's son, and
all their foster brothers, who are counted parcel of the family:
but we were attended by an infinite number of Gaelly's, or ragged
Highlanders without shoes or stockings.
The following articles formed our morning's repast: one kit of
boiled eggs; a second, full of butter; a third full of cream; an
entire cheese, made of goat's milk; a large earthen pot full of
honey; the best part of a ham; a cold venison pasty; a bushel of
oat meal, made in thin cakes and bannocks, with a small wheaten
loaf in the middle for the strangers; a large stone bottle full
of whisky, another of brandy, and a kilderkin of ale.
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