Chapter Gulnarê to Guy Mannering of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

slew the dun cow of Dunsmore, a wild and cruel monster. In Northumberland he slew a winged dragon, “black as any cole,” with the paws of a lion, and a hide which no sword could pierce (Polyolbion, xiii.). After this he turned hermit, and went daily to crave bread of his wife Phelis, who knew him not. On his death-bed he sent her a ring, and she closed his dying eyes (890–958).—Drayton: Polyolbion.

Guy Fawkes, the conspirator, went under the name of John Johnstone, and pretended to be the servant of Mr. Percy (1577–1606).

Guy Mannering, the second of Scott’s historical novels, published in 1815, just seven months after Waverley. The interest of the tale is well sustained; but the love-scenes, female characters, and Guy Mannering himself are quite worthless. Not so the character of Dandy Dinmont, the shrewd and witty counsellor Pleydell, the desperate sea-beaten villainy of Hatteraick, the uncouth devotion of that gentlest of all pedants poor Dominie Sampson, and the savage crazed superstition of the gipsy-dweller in Derncleugh (time, George II.).

Guy Mannering was the work of six weeks about Christmas-time, and marks of haste are visible both in the plot and in its development.—Chambers: English Literature, ii.586.

The tale of Guy Mannering is as follows: The hero is Harry Bertram; and the other main characters are his sister Lucy, with Guy Mannering and his daughter Julia. Bertram’s father (laird of Ellangowan) is made a magistrate, and tries relentlessly to drive away the gipsies. who in consequence, vow vengeance. Soon after this his wife dies in child-birth, the laird himself dies of paralysis, and their young son Harry is kidnapped by Glossin, a lawyer, who purchases the estate. Lucy Bertram is obliged to leave her home, and goes first to live with her guardian, but afterwards is hospitably entertained by Guy Mannering and his daughter Julia. She takes with her Dominie Sampson, who is delighted to be employed in arranging the colonel’s library. Meg Merrilies, a gipsy, befriends Harry Bertram, aids his escape, and afterwards tells him he is the rightful heir of the Ellangowan estate. Glossin is sent to prison, enters the cell of Dirk Hatteraick, a Dutch smuggler, and is strangled by him. Harry Bertram marries Julia (Guy Mannering’s daughter), and Lucy Bertram marries Charles Hazlewood (son of sir Robert Hazlewood of Hazlewood).