200 FIELD AND FERN. 



with a stick to keep him awake, and of course got 

 dreadfully growled at. At that time, he was aide- de- 

 camp to Alexander, Duke of Gordon ; and after two 

 days' rest, he went on the Walcheren expedition. He 

 loved to he talked of, and nothing delighted him so 

 much as when he met a regiment on march during his 

 thousand hours, and the officer made them halt, and 

 form in double line, so as to let him pass through them 

 with all the honours. As was natural enough, he 

 was very jealous of his hard- won fame, and never be- 

 lieved in any one, except himself, accomplishing the 

 thousand miles, or in one-half of the " fair heel and 

 toe" feats which he read of. When he was long past 

 sixty, he thought nothing of sending a man on with 

 liis dress things and walking the twenty-six miles from 

 TJry to a friend's, and back the next morning. His 

 quiet thoughts on the road were generally believed to 

 hover between shorthorns and getting men into 

 condition. Everything he had to do with, down to 

 his glass tumblers, was always on a gigantic scale. 

 His cattle must be up to their knees in grass, and 

 Ms wheat waggons with four or six horses, and the 

 drag on seemed like an earthquake to the Aberdo- 

 nians, when they rumbled down Marischal-street to 

 the harbour. Well might the surveyor tremble by 

 reason of them for the safety of the Old Bridge. His 

 bull Champion was cut up for " refreshments" at one 

 sale ; and when he thought there might be some mis- 

 take about the arrival of the regular beef supplies from 

 the Deacon next day, he had twelve geese killed and 



