ioo NIMRODS NORTHERN TOUR. 



to the Duke of Buccleuch's huntsman, and especially so to Miv 

 Williamson, of whom I have heard so much." 



Williamson. " Wall, sir I have no objection to buy a horse 

 of you, or of any other man, provided I can buy him upon rea- 

 so-nable terms. 



A horse is brought out ; the dialogue thus proceeds ; and, as 

 may be supposed, very soon concludes. 



Williamson. " Not a bad-like beast that ; pray what do you 

 ask for him ?" 



Dealer. " A hundred and fifty guineas !" 



Williamson. " Eh, sir ; we can buy better horses than this 

 in Scotland for less than half that money." 



I need scarcely add Exeunt omnes. 



But a still better anecdote relating to Williamson and his 

 horse-dealing speculations was told to me by the gentleman with 

 whom it originated namely, Captain Elliot, of his majesty's 

 royal navy, brother to the Scottish baronet of that honourable 

 name ; and whom I had the pleasure of meeting during my visit 

 to Meller stain. The captain, it appeared, had lately returned 

 from sea, having been for some time on a foreign station, and 

 immediately purchased for himself a hunter. Now two things 

 must be premised ere I proceed in my tale. Either Williamson 

 had never seen the captain before, or, having seen him, had for- 

 gotten him. Again, the captain was in mufti,* which never adds 

 to the outward and visible sign of any gentleman-sportsman in 

 the field, at least in a huntsman's eyes. Again, captains in the 

 navy (at least I can answer for one, a particular friend of mine, 

 who makes a perfect non-descriptf of himself when he takes the 

 field ; but, as the poet says, 



" What's the gay dolphin 



When he quits the waves and bounds upon the shore ?")- 



are apt to be less observant of costume that when at home on 

 the quarter deck ; and there is no disguising the fact, that Wil- 

 liamson the first time he saw Captain Elliot on the newly pur- 

 chased grey did not take him to be, what he really is, a well-bred 

 gentleman. The following various conversations then, which 

 the captain recapitulates with the greatest candour indeed with 



* The word " mufti," in the hunting field, means anything but a red 

 coat. 



f Don't let it be imagined that I place Captain Elliot amongst the 

 non-descripts. Far from it ; but such was the plainness of his attire the. 

 first day I saw him in the field, that, until I heard him speak, I was my- 

 self at a loss as to what order he might belong. 



