# Gilfillan — Waverley character guide

> Gilfillan in Waverley by Walter Scott.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Gilfillan, Gifted Gilfillan, Habakkuk Gilfillan

**First appearance:** 0036-part-ii-ii-an-examination

## Snapshot

A Cameronian preacher turned soldier, whose fanatical zeal and gift for psalmody make him as dangerous to his own side as to the enemy.

## Who they are

Gilfillan is a Hanoverian officer of the Covenanting strain, a man whose religious fervor and military ardor are indistinguishable. He appears in the Low Country campaigns as a figure of grim comedy and genuine menace, the kind of zealot whose certainty brooks no compromise. His presence sharpens the novel's portrait of a war fought not only between Jacobite and Hanoverian but between competing visions of God, king, and conscience.

## In the story

### [A Conference and the Consequence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/waverley_se/chapters/part-ii-iii-a-conference-and-the-consequence)

The Cameronian commander of armed volunteers; tasked with escorting Waverley to Stirling Castle.

### [A Confidant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/waverley_se/chapters/part-ii-iv-a-confidant)

A Cameronian leader who will escort Waverley to Stirling.

### [Things Mend a Little](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/waverley_se/chapters/part-ii-v-things-mend-a-little)

Commands the party that arrives with a drum; silences the drummer for playing a secular tune and orders the 119th Psalm instead.

### [A Volunteer Sixty Years Since](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/waverley_se/chapters/part-ii-vi-a-volunteer-sixty-years-since)

Leads the Cameronian volunteers, displays fanatical piety, and rebuffs Melville's suggestions.

### [VII: An Incident](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/waverley_se/chapters/part-ii-vii-an-incident)

Cameronian Covenanter leading the march, delivers a lengthy sermon against prelacy and Erastianism, is knocked down by the pedlar during the ambush.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/waverley_se/characters/gilfillan
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/waverley_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/waverley_se/characters