ABERDEEN TO STONEHAVEN. 209 



for six weeks during the hunting season, and 

 made quite a sensation at one of the balls in his green 

 coat and black knee-breeches. If, as he complained, 

 some of his old friends had forgotten him in his yel- 

 low buckskins and venerable mahogany tops, which 

 generally rested pretty nearly on his instep at the 

 cover-side, they knew him fast enough at night. Of 

 the Aberdeen races he was once a great supporter, and 

 ran horses ; but all his comrades died off, and, lat- 

 terly, beyond betting a trifle and having Fancy Girl at 

 FAnson's, he was almost out of it. He was generally 

 at Epsom, and he used to tell with some glee that the 

 most nervous men he ever saw in a road-lock on the 

 Derby day were two of the old Defiance coachmen. 



At home his own habits were very quiet and 

 simple. He was always ready with his subscription 

 for any good object, and every Monday twenty or 

 thirty people would be waiting for him about the 

 front door after breakfast for their sixpences, of 

 which he carried a supply in his waistcoat pocket, 

 On New Year's Day he had always his friends to 

 dinner, and he sat obscured to the chin behind the 

 round of beef which two men brought in on a trencher. 

 Mr. Kinnear was the perpetual Vice, and every body 

 made a speech. The Captain's was quite an oration, 

 or rather a resume of the year, and concluded with a 

 special eulogium on those who " have died since our 

 last anniversary." Not unfrequently he killed one or 

 two before their time, perhaps more from a little dry 

 humour than by mistake ; and then he begged their 



p 



