PERTH TO DUNKELD. 273 



and they had no chance of preying on each other. 

 Mr. Barber was among them, looking resigned and 

 incredulous ; and when the horses did come in, Young 

 Perth rushed wildly up the course with a zest and a 

 yell which did them honour. A race was a race to them, 

 and "blue jacket and black cap" won in a canter. 

 What did they know about arrangements, and all 

 such subtle mysteries? When a race wasn't going 

 on, they could " Try your weight gentle-mm", or 

 gather round one of the ballad-singers, to whom Fred 

 Turpin was listening with rapt attention as if for 

 the first whimper in a Fifeshire gorse. We should have 

 seen far better fun at Ayr the next year, or at Kelso 

 the year before, but '63 and the Inch were our lot; 

 and the best omen for the Club that day was " a 

 vision of fair women" inside and outside a county 

 drag, all bound for the ball at night. 



The Club was instituted at Hamilton in 1777. 

 Her Majesty is the patron ; and the eldest living 

 member is the Marquis of Tweeddale, who was ad- 

 mitted in 1809. The uniform is scarlet with green 

 collar, and in old days the slightest variation in the 

 shade of the green would have been spied out in an 

 instant, and two buttons instead of three at the wrist 

 would have formed the subject of a special demurrer. 

 Earls Glasgow, Wemyss, and Moray rank next in 

 seniority, and date from August, 1822 ; the Duke of 

 Buccleuch is five, and Mr. Little Gilmour six years 

 their junior. It is limited to seventy members " con- 

 nected with Scotland by birth or property ;" and the 



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