J2 NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 



able to take the field at all on the Edinburgh horses, one of 

 which was already lame. " Oh yes/' replied the landlord ; 

 ^ there is a Mr. Dickinson, a Yorkshireman I believe, who has 

 the best stables in Kelso, where the gentlemen's hunters all 

 stand ; he is a very good man, and will be sure to find you a 

 liorse." u Just the person I want/' continued I ; " and a York- 

 shireman too ! Now have the kindness to sit down and write a 

 note to introduce me to him, that is, just tell him I am a bit of 

 a sportsman, and that you think I may be trusted with a horse." 

 The request was instantly complied with. Boniface took pen in 

 liand on the spot, and I am sure, reader, you will smile when 

 you peruse his laconic epistle, about as much to the purpose, you 

 will say, as if he had been recommending me to a dancing 

 master. To a master of hounds, at all events, it would have 

 ISeen a more appropriate passport. 



"Dunse, November 22nd, 1834. 

 & DEAR SIR, 



" Mr. A has been stopping three weeks at my house. 



You will find him a very pleasing gentleman. 



" Yours truly, 

 " To Mr. Dickinson, Kelso." 



Now what Mr. Dickinson found me I am unable to say, but I 

 found him one of the civilest creatures ever lapped in a human 

 skin, and my horses were excellently accommodated in his 

 stables at one guinea each per week, but of his hunters had he 

 possessed any 1 stood not in need, as the sequel of this story 

 will show. 



I am quite sure I never sat beside a coachman in my life 

 without entering into conversation with him, neither did I see 

 any reason why I should travel in silence with the post-boy who 

 drove me this day to Kelso an oldish " boy" by the way, for 

 I have found, on my journey through life, that golden opinions 

 are to be gathered from all classes of human beings old women 

 in particular. This knight of the whip, however, was more than 

 usually communicative pointing out to me unasked, many in- 

 teresting points of the country through which we passed, and 

 amongst others, several that we had traversed in our celebrated 

 ijfty-five minutes with the duke's hounds ; as also the house of 

 Rowchester, at the door of which that fine run was concluded. 

 w There is Thomson's monument," said he, soon after we entered 

 Roxburghshire, and were only a few miles from Kelso ; " I sup- 

 ose, sir, you ken who he was ?" I nodded assent ; and if my 

 How-traveller had known how highly I prize the memory of this 



