CHAPTER VIII.
REMOVAL TO ABBOTSFORD, AND LIFE THERE.
In May, 1812, Scott having now at last obtained the salary of the Clerkship of Session, the work of which he had for more than five years discharged without pay, indulged himself in realizing his favourite dream of buying a "mountain farm" at Abbotsford,--five miles lower down the Tweed than his cottage at Ashestiel, which was now again claimed by the family of Russell,--and migrated thither with his household goods.

The children long remembered the leave-taking as one of pure grief, for the villagers were much attached both to Scott and to his wife, who had made herself greatly beloved by her untiring goodness to the sick among her poor neighbours.

But Scott himself describes the migration as a scene in which their neighbours found no small share of amusement.

"Our flitting and removal from Ashestiel baffled all description; we had twenty-five cartloads of the veriest trash in nature, besides dogs, pigs, ponies, poultry, cows, calves, bare-headed wenches, and bare-breeched boys."[25] To another friend Scott wrote that the neighbours had "been much delighted with the procession of my furniture, in which old swords, bows, targets, and lances, made a very conspicuous show.

A family of turkeys was accommodated within the helmet of some _preux chevalier_ of ancient border fame; and the very cows, for aught I know, were bearing banners and muskets.