Her bosom was more
snowed than the heart of the white swan; her cheek was redder than
the reddest roses."
[Illustration: THE "POPPING STONE," GILSLAND.]
Or again, both of the love-stricken swains may have dipped, into the
_Arabian Nights_, where imagination and picture painting runs riot.
There was no doubt that Scott fell deeply in love with her, so much so
that a friend whom he visited in 1797 wrote that "Scott was 'sair'
beside himself about Miss Carpenter and that they toasted her twenty
times over and raved about her until one o'clock in the morning." Sir
Walter seemed to have acted in his courtship on the old north-country
adage, "Happy is the wooing that is not long a-doing," for he was
married to her three months afterwards. The whole details are carefully
preserved in local tradition. The River Irthing runs through Gilsland,
and at the foot of the cliffs, which rise go feet above the river, were
the Sulphur Wells. Near these, on the bank of the river, was a large
stone named the "Popping Stone," where it was said that Sir Walter Scott
"popped the question," and all who can get a piece of this stone, which,
by the way, is of a very hard nature, and place it under the pillow at
night, will dream of their future partners.
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