The carriages had been previously assembled on the haugh
below, and were so arranged there, that they drove up in a continued
line; and as each passed the great gateway, it took up its owners,
and then proceeded. There certainly were not less than seventy
gentlemen's carriages of all descriptions, two-wheeled as well as
four-wheeled,--besides which there were a number of horsemen. The public
road runs along the face of the hill, immediately above the house, in a
direction from west to east; and the avenue leading from the gate of the
courtyard runs up the hill in a westerly direction, entering the public
road so obliquely as to produce a very awkward turn for carriages going
eastward towards Melrose. Until we had passed this point some little way
we could form no notion of the extent of the procession; but when we
were thus enabled to form some judgment of it, we perceived that it had
extended itself over about a mile of road.
Ere yet we had left the immediate vicinity of the house, we discovered a
mournful group of women-servants weeping behind the hedge on our left,
whither they had hurried to take their last look of that hearse which
was carrying to the grave a kind and indulgent master, whose like they
had no hope ever to look upon again.
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