about noon
He travelled of course on horseback , and with a single attendant , and passed his first night at a miserable inn , where the landlady had neither shoes nor stockings , and the landlord , who called himself a gentleman , was disposed to be rude to his guest , because he had not bespoke the pleasure of his society to supper . -LSB- 5 -RSB- The next day , traversing an open and unenclosed country , Edward gradually approached the Highlands of Perthshire , which at first had appeared a blue outline in the horizon , but now swelled into huge gigantic masses , which frowned defiance over the more level country that lay beneath them . Near the bottom of this stupendous barrier , but still in the Lowland country , dwelt Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine of Bradwardine ; and , if grey-haired eld can be in aught believed , there had dwelt his ancestors , with all their heritage , since the days of the gracious King Duncan . It was about noon when Captain Waverley entered the straggling village , or rather hamlet , of Tully-Veolan , close to which was situated the mansion of the proprietor . The houses seemed miserable in the extreme , especially to an eye accustomed to the smiling neatness of English cottages . They stood , without any respect for regularity , on each side of & straggling kind of unpaved street , where children , almost in a primitive state of nakedness , lay sprawling , as if to be crushed by the hoofs of the first passing horse . Occasionally , indeed , when such a consummation seemed inevitable , a watchful old grandam , with her close cap , distaff , and spindle , rushed like a sibyl in frenzy out of one of these miserable cells , dashed into the middle of the path , and snatching up her own charge from among the sunburnt loiterers , saluted him with a sound cuff , and transported him back to his dungeon , the little white-headed varlet screaming all the while , from the very top of his lungs , a shrilly treble to the growling remonstrances of the enraged matron .