Untold Gold

Tom Purdie, Sir Walter Scott’s favourite servant, appeared before the Sheriff first as a poacher; but Scott became interested in his story, which he told with a mixture of pathos, simplicity, and pawky humour, and extended to him forgiveness and favour.

Tom served him long and faithfully, and we have been told that Walter Scott proposed for his epitaph the words, “ Here lies one who might have been trusted with untold gold, but not with unmeasured whisky.”

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