NIMRO&S NORTHERN TOUR. 3* 



to carry weight, by a well-bred horse, because her coarse points 

 do not impede her action, and there is no carrying weight with- 

 out coarse points. 

 Although it could not be said of this day, 



" That Phoebus befriended our earlier roam," 

 or that 



" Luna took care in conducting us home :" 



yet amends were made in the evening by an agreeable dinner 

 party at Dunse-castle, which was enlivened by the presence of 

 several young ladies who were staying in the house, in addition. 

 to those of Mr. Hay's own family ; and after various songs from 

 one of them a very superior songstress in the drawing-room, 

 we adjourned to a very large unfinished room in the castle, te 

 witness the extraordinary performance of a blind man upon the 

 harp. One of the young ladies sang for him two airs to her 

 guitar, and shall I ever forget the expression of delight his counte- 

 nance beamed with, as the melody of her voice reached his ear ? 

 It wanted not the index to the soul of which he appeared to 

 have been long since deprived to show where it touched him ; 

 and when I saw the involuntary contortions of his frame, I could 

 have exclaimed with Milton : 



' What of sweet 



Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this." 



Thus is " the wind tempered to the shorn lamb." And thank- 

 ful should we be that it is so. 



It has many times been observed of fox-hunting, and in its 

 praise, that it is somewhat of a Saturnalian amusement, bring- 

 ing, to a certain extent, all men upon a level. But it does more 

 than this. It renders a man superior to many of those little 

 trials and personal inconveniences which would not otherwise be 

 submitted to by those who had the power of avoiding them. In. 

 short, if I may be allowed the expression, it makes a man a matt, 

 I myself had walked to Dunse-castle this night, a dark and wet 

 one in November, in a rough great-coat and strong shoes, with 

 my pumps in my pocket, because the expense of a post-chaise 

 did not square with my purse, but such could not be said of 

 the young noblemen at the cottage, who had still further to 

 travel than I had. When the party broke up, however, I saw 

 the rough great-coats, and the strong shoes, and the pumps in 

 the pocket were the order of the day, or rather of the night with, 

 them with this difference, that their lordships' pumps went 

 into a footman's pocket, and NimrocFs into his own. 



