252 Four-in-Hand in Britain. 



with a diamond, "Thou whom chance may hither 

 lead," one of my favorites. This is now preserved, to 

 be handed down as an heirloom in the family, finally, we 

 hope, to find its place in some public collection. While 

 we were in the mansion a granddaughter of Annie 

 Laurie actually came in. I know of no young lady 

 whose grandmother is so widely and favorably known. 

 We were all startled to be brought so near to the ideal 

 Annie Laurie of our dreams. It only shows that the 

 course of true love never runs smooth when we hear 

 that she did not marry the poetic lover. Well, may be 

 she was happier with a dull country squire. Poets are 

 not proverbially model husbands ; the better poet, the 

 worse husband, and the writer of Annie Laurie had the 

 poetic temperament pretty well developed. 



" Right, Perry ! " We are off for Sanquhar, twenty- 

 eight miles away ; the day superb, with a freshness un- 

 known in the more genial South we are rapidly leaving 



behind. What a pretty sight it was, to see Miss N 



bounding along upon her horse in the distance, an avant 

 courier leading us to a warm welcome at her beautiful 

 home ! Would I had been beside her on Habeebah ! 

 We spent an hour or two there, and then with three 

 enthusiastic cheers for " Friars Carse and a' within it," the 

 Charioteers drove off ; but long must fond recollections 

 of that estate and of the faces seen there linger in our 

 memories as among the most pleasing of our ever-mem- 

 orable journey. A home upon the Nith near Dumfries 



