"I wad win at the boddom o' 't first."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Ye'll see whan ye win in till 't. There 's a heap o' voutit places
inside yon blin' face. Du ye see yon wee bit squaur winnock? That
lats the licht in till ane o' them. There maybe vouts aneath vouts,
for them 'at ye can win intill 's half fu' o' yird an' stanes. I
wad hae a' that cleart oot, an syne begin frae the verra foondation,
diggin', an' patchin', an' buttressin', till I got it a' as soun'
as a whunstane; an' whan I cam to the tap o' the rock, there the
castel sud tak to growin' again; an' grow it sud, till there it
stude, as near what it was as the wit an' the han' o' man cud set
it."
"That would ruin a tolerably rich man," said the marquis..
"Ony gait it's no the w'y fowk ruins themsel's nooadays, my lord.
They'll pu' doon an auld hoose ony day to save themsel's blastin'
poother. There's that gran' place they ca' Huntly Castel!--
a suckin' bairn to this for age, but wi' wa's, they tell me, wad
stan' for thoosan's o' years: wad ye believe 't? there's a sowlless
chiel' o' a factor there diggin' park wa's an' a grainery oot o'
't, as gien 'twar a quarry o' blue stane! An' what 's ten times
mair exterord'nar, there's the Duke o' Gordon jist lattin' the gype
tak 's wull o' the hoose a' his grace's ain forbears! I wad maist
as sune lat a man speyk ill o' my daddy!"
"But this is past all rebuilding," said his lordship. "It would be
barely possible to preserve the remains as they are.
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