NIMRO&S NORTHERN TOUR. 73 



modern Theocritus, lie might have spared himself the trouble of 

 asking me the question. 



I have often considered myself fortunate in meeting with 

 characters on my Tours that is to say, with persons who step a 

 little out of the path which their fate has allotted to them to pursue ; 

 and I soon found out that I had stumbled upon one in the person 

 of Peter, the head waiter at the Cross Keys in Kelso, a house of 

 great repute on the north road. But where is the situation, in 

 the humbler walks of life, in which there is a wider field for the 

 formation of character and the exercise of it afterwards than 

 that of a waiter at a large inn, upon a much frequented road? 

 And where is the man in this part of Scotland who does not ken 

 the said Peter ? For my own part, I could not find any such 

 ignoramus. My own acquaintance with him, however, began as 

 follows : 



There is nothing more striking than the look of reception if 

 I may be allowed such a term a man experiences at the moment 

 of his approaching the door of a large inn. In fact, from Boni- 

 face himself to Bill the boots, a pretty exact estimate is instantly 

 made of his intrinsic value, and the "look of reception 7 ' is in 

 exact accordance with said estimate. Now my appearance was 

 of a somewhat dubious nature. No doubt, but at first I might 

 have been taken for what is commonly called a coaching bag- 

 man, by which is implied, a commercial gentleman who travels 

 by coaches instead of by his own " horse and chaise," but who 

 hires a horse and chaise when there is no coach from one town 

 to another, as was the case here on this day. Under such cir- 

 cumstances, then, what more could I expect from Peter, on 

 alighting from the gig, than what I got ? which was exactly this : 

 " Show the gentleman into No. 2, and stir the fire f when Peter 

 and his napkin appeared to vanish into air. 



But a waiter at an inn of this sort makes a near approach to 

 perpetual motion, at all events to a kind of mortal ubiquity; and 

 something requiring Peter's re-appearance at the door, he saw 

 amongst my traps in the gig, what induced him to believe he 

 was mistaken as to the gentleman in No. 2, and he not only saw 

 a hunting whip and some boot-trees, but he also heard some- 

 thing that settled the point at once. " The gentleman has been 

 stopping at our house" said the post-boy, " and he is come here 

 to hunt with the duke." 



This short, but pithy, sentence went to the very soul of Peter. 

 In the twinkling of an eye he was in No. 2 stirred the fire, 

 "hoped I left my lord, and all the gentlemen, well at Dunse," 

 "of course I should like a fire in my bedroom?" "what time 

 should I like to dine ?" " would order a fire in the large hunt 



