Cold Curry
which accompanies Miss Fraser Tytler's excellent recipe for Cold Curry recalls a romantic legend, referred to by Scott in "The Grey Brother":
"From that fair dome where suit is paid
By blast of bugle free,
To Annesley's hazel glade
And haunted Woodhouselee."
Scott knew the old house well, when he himself lived at Lasswade. At the date of his visit to Woodhouselee the ghost was wont to issue from a small very old door which led from the "big bedroom," which was hung with tapestry, into the turret. "Lady Anne" had frequently been seen by the old nurse Cicy Lord and her daughter Betty, the dairymaid. The former, when asked about "Lady Anne," used to say, "Deed I hae seen her times out o' mind, but I am no ways afeard. I ken weel she canna gang beyond her commission; but there's that silly feckless thing, Betty, she met her in the lang passage ae nicht in the winter time, and she had na a drap o' bluid in her face for a fortnight after; she says Lady Anne came sae near her she could see her dress quite weel, it was a Manchester muslin with a wee flower." Woodhouselee came into the possession of the Tytler family
The 'Anne Tytler' who gave the recipe for Cold Curry to Lady Clark is my sister-in-law, and I can vouch for the excellence of the dish.