Note 15 — LETTER XXXI.
Reading edition
Thus, then, between Auld Wat of Harden, and Scott’s grandfather, we have four generations, numbering approximately a hundred and fifty years, from 1580 to 1730,15 and in that time we have the great change in national manners from stealing cattle to breeding and selling them, which at first might seem a change in the way of gradually increasing honesty. But observe that this first cattle-dealer of our line is “stubbornly honest,” a quality which it would be unsafe to calculate upon in any dealer of our own days.