Let me but look around me

Assuming, therefore, an air of consequence, corresponding to what he supposed to be his master’s importance and quality, Adam Woodcock led the way into the courtyard of the Palace of Holyrood. He appears to have been fond of the arts; for there exists a beautiful family-piece of him in the centre of his family. Mr. Pinkerton, in his Scottish Iconographia, published an engraving of this curious portrait. The original is the property of Lord Somerville, nearly connected with the Seton family, and is at present at his lordship’s fishing villa of the Pavilion, near Melrose. The youthful page paused on the entrance of the court-yard, and implored his guide to give him a moment’s breathing space. “Let me but look around me, man,” said he; “you consider not I have never seen such a scene as this before.— And this is Holyrood — the resort of the gallant and gay, and the fair, and the wise, and the powerful!” “Ay, marry, is it!” said Woodcock; “but I wish I could hood thee as they do the hawks, for thou starest as wildly as if you sought another fray or another fanfarona. I would I had thee safely housed, for thou lookest wild as a goss-hawk.” It was indeed no common sight to Roland, the vestibule of a palace traversed by its various groups,— some radiant with gaiety — some pensive, and apparently weighed down by affairs concerning the state, or concerning themselves. Here the hoary statesman, with his cautious yet commanding look, his furred cloak and sable pantoufles; there the soldier in buff and steel, his long sword jarring against the pavement, and his whiskered upper lip and frowning brow, looking an habitual defiance of danger, which perhaps was not always made good; there again passed my lord’s serving-man, high of heart, and bloody of hand, humble to his master and his master’s equals, insolent to all others.