44 NIMROUS NORTHERN TO UR. 



coach, and to alight in ground half up to his knees ; if in a turnip 

 field, half up to his shoulder. But it was from the cause I have 

 stated, the difficulty of the footing the first ditch that funked 

 me ; for the second I cared nothing, often throwing my eye upon 

 the hounds when on the bank, and letting my horse look out for 

 himself; and I am ready to admit that my imagination more 

 than once presented me with a picture of Keepsake on his back 

 and Nimrod under him, in a ready-made grave. But he did not 

 make a single mistake in the course of the day, nor were there 

 so many falls as might have been expected in so severe a country, 

 in which horses not used to it would make a bad figure at first. 



We had a kind of practical apologue at the conclusion of this 

 run, which will confirm the character I have given of Mr. Grieve's 

 powers in his saddle. A horse on sale was brought out for Lord 

 Saltoun's inspection, and, on the suggestion of Mr. M'Dowall 

 Grant, Mr. Grieve was requested to give him a " lark," to ascer- 

 tain his proficiency in fencing. After taking him a ring around 

 the neighbouring country, he all at once appeared in our sight, 

 in the act of charging a flight of rails on the other side of which 

 was a drop for I measured it of upwards of ten feet, into a 

 hard turnpike road ! There was no time to check him ; and 

 when I saw himself and the horse in the air I expected both 

 would be smashed on the spot. Strange to say, although the 

 horse's forelegs gave way from the concussion, and he made a 

 sort of a groove as if with a hoe across the road with his 

 knees, which was absolutely lined with hair, Mr. Grieve sat as 

 firmly in his saddle as if the animal had been standing still under 

 him at the time; and, equally strange the consequence, no 

 doubt, of no angular stone coming in contact with them the 

 knees of the horse were not incurably broken. Sir David Baird, 

 who rode in his usual masterly style (and, as a friend of mine, 

 who knows him well, says, " who can beat him ?"\ nearly put 

 out one of his horse's eyes in a bullfinch fence in this run ; but, 

 although the eyelid was deeply cut, and the bleeding profuse, the 

 eye was found to be uninjured. 



The day concluded with a dinner at Lord Eglinton's, to which 

 I had the honour of an invitation ; and as the evening was fine 

 I thought a walk of two miles and a half would do me good ; so 

 with my pumps in my pocket I " wound my way" through Dunse- 

 park, having been assured of a cast home in a carriage at night. 

 Now I sometimes stop to contemplate nature ; and I saw her 

 here very much to my admiration not in a gay, but in a sombre 

 mood, in what Shakespeare calls "the silent of the night" as I 

 stood about ten minutes by the side of the beautiful piece of 

 water in this park. Although the young moon was obscured at 



