Rob Roy, published in 1818, excellent for its bold sketches of Highland scenery. The character of Bailie Nicol Jarvie is one of Scott’s happiest conceptions; and the carrying of him to the wild mountains among outlaws and desperadoes is exquisitely comic. The hero, Frank Osbaldistone, is no hero at all. Dramatized by I. Pocock.
Rob Roy M’Gregor, i.e. “Robert the Red,” whose surname was MacGregor. He was an outlaw who assumed the name of Campbell in 1662. He may be termed the Robin Hood of Scotland. The hero of the novel is Frank Osbaldistone, who gets into divers troubles, from which he is rescued by Rob Roy. The last service is to kill Rashleigh Osbaldistone, whereby Frank’s great enemy is removed; and Frank then marries Diana Vernon.—Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.).
Rather beneath the middle size than above it, his limbs were formed upon the very strongest model that is consistent with agility.... Two points in his person interfered with the rules of symmetry: his shoulders were too broad ... and his arms (though round, sinewy and strong) were so very long as to be rather a deformity.—Ch. xxiii.
Rob Tally-ho, Esq., cousin of the Hon. Tom Dashall, the two blades whose rambles and adventures through the metropolis are related by Pierce Egan (1821-2).
Rob the Rambler, the comrade of Willie Steenson, the blind fiddler.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).
Robb (Duncan), the grocer near Ellangowan.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).
Robber (Alexander’s). The pirate who told Alexander he was the greater robber of the two, was Dionĭdês. (See Evenings at Home, art. “Alexander and the Robber.”) The tale is from Cicero:
Nam quum quæreretur ex eo, quo scelere impulsus mare haberet infestum uno myoparone: eodem, inquit, quo tu orbem terræ.—De Repub., iii. 14 sc. 24.
Robber (Edward the). Edward IV. was so called by the Scotch.
Robert, father of Marian. He had been a wrecker, and still hankered after the old occupation. One night a storm arose, and Robert went to the coast to see what would fall into his hands. A body was washed ashore, and he rifled it. Marian followed, with the hope of restraining her father, and saw in the dusk some one strike a dagger into a prostrate body. She thought it was her father, and when Robert was on his trial he was condemned to death on his daughter’s evidence. Black Norris, the real murderer, told her he would save her father if she would consent to be his wife; she consented, and Robert was acquitted. On the wedding day her lover, Edward, returned to claim her hand, Norris was seized as a murderer, and Marian was saved.—S. Knowles, The Daughter (1836).