NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 33 



paper critic, who felt squeamish at part of a song I had quoted^ 

 describing a run over Leicestershire, in which his horse was 

 represented to be a good deal the worse for having gone "the 

 pace" for best part of an hour with sixteen stone on his back. 

 But it is not only as a good sportsman as one very fond of 

 hounds, and a very superior horseman that I have to represent 

 Mr. Campbell. It is said that the gods, having taken pity on 

 the race of mortals, born to evil as the sparks fly upwards, have 

 given them the Muses, and Apollo their leader, and Bacchus 

 their friend, not only to amuse them, but also to reform their 

 manners, and soften their souls ; and here we have their repre- 

 sentative in the Laird of Saddell.* We have the poet, the 

 songster, the jovial companion, the sportsman, and the horse- 

 man, all combined in one man, and that is saying as much as I 

 need say, although I could say more. There is more of the 

 gaiety of Anacreon in Mr. Campbell's character than I ever re- 

 member to have met with before, and he has poetical talent that 

 might have been turned to a good account had he been obliged 

 to make use of it. He could have written the Pythic ode, and 

 have sung it afterwards. 



But my readers shall not take all this on my word alone ; I 

 will give them a specimen of his lyric muse in an off-hand song 

 he made one night in 1833, at Rossie Priory the seat of Lord 

 Kinnaird on the occasion of a famous run he had seen in the 

 morning with Mr. Dalyell's hounds, in Forfarshire, and which 

 he sings most delightfully to the tune of, " We have been Friends 

 together," on the words of which it will be perceived to be some- 

 what of a parody. It is dedicated to Walter Gilmour, Esq., of 

 Melton celebrity, who enjoyed the sport with him. 



" We have seen a run together, 

 We have ridden side by side ; 

 It binds us to each other 

 Like a lover to his bride. 

 We have seen a run together 

 When the hounds run far and fast, 

 We have harken'd by each other, 

 To the huntsman's cheering blast. 



* I need scarcely inform such enlightened readers as mine are, that 

 the allusion to Bacchus is only to be considered in its proper light as 

 the inspirer of poetry. Parnassus was sacred to Bacchus as well as to 

 Apollo ; and Horace says he is justly in the train of the Muses as Cupid 

 is in that of his mother, without whose aid, she herself confesses, she ca 

 do but little execution. 



3 



