After all, this narrowness, though a more ordinary modification of the spirit of avarice, may be founded on the same desire of acquisition, which in his earlier days sent him to the gaming-table.
But there was one remarkable instance in which Mr.Mowbray departed from the rules of economy, by which he was guided in all others.

Having acquired, for a large sum of money, the ground which he had formerly feued out for the erection of the hotel, lodging-houses, shops, &c., at St.Ronan's Well, he sent positive orders for the demolition of the whole, nor would he permit the existence of any house of entertainment on his estate, except that in the Aultoun, where Mrs.Dods reigns with undisputed sway, her temper by no means improved either by time, or her arbitrary disposition by the total absence of competition.
Why Mr.Mowbray, with his acquired habits of frugality, thus destroyed a property which might have produced a considerable income, no one could pretend to affirm.

Some said that he remembered his own early follies; and others, that he connected the buildings with the misfortunes of his sister.

The vulgar reported, that Lord Etherington's ghost had been seen in the ball-room, and the learned talked of the association of ideas.
But it all ended in this, that Mr.Mowbray was independent enough to please himself, and that such was Mr.Mowbray's pleasure.
The little watering-place has returned to its primitive obscurity; and lions and lionesses, with their several jackals, blue surtouts, and bluer stockings, fiddlers and dancers, painters and amateurs, authors and critics, dispersed like pigeons by the demolition of a dovecot, have sought other scenes of amusement and rehearsal, and have deserted ST.
RONAN'S WELL.[II-12] FOOTNOTE: [II-12] Note III .-- Meg Dods.
AUTHOR'S NOTES.
Note I., p.

202.
There were several instances of this dexterity, but especially those which occurred in the celebrated case of Murdison and Millar, in 1773.
These persons, a sheep-farmer and his shepherd, settled in the vale of Tweed, commenced and carried on for some time an extensive system of devastation on the flocks of their neighbours.