From a Sir Walter Scott short story:
"“It is very true,” said the blind man, “that when I am tired of
scraping thairm or singing ballants I whiles make a tale serve the
turn among the country bodies; and I have some fearsome anes,
that make the auld carlines shake on the settle, and the bits o’
bairns skirl on their minnies out frae their beds. But this that I
am going to tell you was a thing that befell in our ain house in
my father’s time—that is, my father was then a hafflins callant;
and I tell it to you, that it may be a lesson to you that are but a
young thoughtless chap, wha ye draw up wi’ on a lonely road;
for muckle was the dool and care that came o’ ’t to my
gudesire.”"

Wjat is a "hafflins callant"?

From same story, one I learned recently here while searching for something else'
The word "of that ilk" meaning of that family. Usually "ilk" has a pejorative tone, not so here.


" Ye maun have heard of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of that ilk, who
lived in these parts before the dear years. "

Canna' find hafflins, but MW has this on callant:

"Function: noun
Etymology: Dutch or Old North French; Dutch kalant customer, fellow, from Old North French calland customer, from Latin calent-, calens, present participle of calEre to be warm"

http://www.bartleby.com/6/1002.html

hafflins callant <> a quasi-stripling (a lad?)

also, I would say that 'ilk' is mostly neutral in and of itself, much like 'kind' or 'sort'.

That story had so many dialect words there's no use bothering about any of them.

In reply to:

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The word "of that ilk" meaning of that family.

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Not quite. It was usual in Scotland to say where the family came from, for example Sir Ian McDonald of Ness. Where the place name and the person's surname were the same, then 'of that ilk' would be used. In your example, Sir Robert Redgauntlet of that ilk would mean Sir Robert Redgauntlet of Redgauntlet.

For further details see: http://www.xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=594064&secid=.-&hh=1

Bingley

Thanks, Bingley, for setting me straight. I simply could not find the original reference.