NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 47 



body, like that of a dog cart, with a seat before for the driver, 

 and a chair behind for the guard exactly on the principle of that 

 to the regular mail coach. But the singular part of the affair 

 consists in the bar passing under the bellies of the horses, instead 

 of over their backs, which makes it very awkward to put them to, 

 and take them from, the carriage ; and will 1 account for the 

 landlord having told me, that a pair of blood mares of his own 

 breeding were not made steady, at these times, under three 

 months. It is doubtless a carriage for speed, being near to the 

 ground, and so hung as to throw very little weight on the horse's 

 backs ; but I was told it now and then gets floored, as indeed 

 what very fast drag does not ? The last time I was in Edin- 

 burgh, I saw one of these carriages in the streets, in a cart, 

 fractured in all parts ; as they say on the road indeed, after a 

 very bad mishap, " the drag might have been brought home in 

 a sack." It has now been going ten or twelve years, and is a 

 great convenience to Edinburgh. 



When on my Yorkshire Tour I was frequently at a loss, when 

 inquiring my road, &c., from the \vant of a glossary of words, 

 particularly in the county of Durham ; so took the first oppor- 

 tunity of ascertaining how I should fare in Scotland in the use 

 of my English tongue and ears, and this presented itself to me 

 this morning on the road from Dunse to Cornhill. I overtook a 

 farmer's boy on a good looking old horse, when the following 

 dialogue took place. 



Nimrod. You have a good old horse there, boy. 



Boy. Ay have I. 



Nimrod. Is he a hunter ? 



Boy. Ay is he ; he's a muckle of spirit, but he's sair 

 wraught and all fad. 



Nimrod. Will you follow me over that hedge ? 



Boy. A ah and what will I get by that ? What if I breaks 

 his lag ? 



Nimrod. A good licking, I suppose. 



Boy. Nay and that wouldn't be a 7 . 



If this be a specimen, said I to myself, there will be no diffi- 

 culty on this score ; but I suspect an English lad would have 

 risked the consequence of the " lark." 



When I arose in the morning I found the frost unusually 

 severe for the season, and the guard of the curricle mail reported 

 it's being still severer south. One night's frost in November, 

 however, seldom stopping hunting, I rode to the place of meeting, 

 making allowance for the morning, and just nicked the time. I 

 have already made mention of this pack, as formerly managed 

 by Mr. Boag, but now by Major St. Paul, brother to Sir Horace 



