334 NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 



liim of course for one of his field who had got ahead of his hounds 

 by some unfair nick ; little thinking that he was addressing a 

 commercial traveller on his journey from London. But fancy a 

 member of this useful fraternity, got so far on his road to the good 

 sown of Edinburgh ; having worked his way 



'* Per varies casus et tot discrimina rerum," 



fhrough good report and evil report, bad debts and good ones, 

 large orders and small ones, doing his utmost for his employers, 

 and then to be asked by a huntsman, " What the h // brought 

 him there /" To me the circumstance is irresistibly ridiculous, 

 and I confess I should have greatly enjoyed the scene. Under 

 similar circumstances he once came across an unfortunate horse- 

 breaker, on a two year old colt, and mistaking him also for a 

 M'Adamizing sport-spoiler, roared lustily out to him to " sta-and 

 still." Finding, however, he might as well have roared to the 

 rocks, or to the waves, he as lustily called to him to turn his 

 horse"* " Hoo shall I turn him ?" said the fellow in reply, " lie's 

 no been moonted before to-day, and he's sair afraid your dogs 

 will devour him." " Then Williamson can blow up a little now 

 and then !" I think I hear some of my readers exclaim. Let 

 Mr. Cosser of Dunse, one of his oldest friends and greatest ad- 

 mirers, answer this question , because it will make such readers 

 smile. " Hold hard, Mr. Cosser," said he one day to him on a 

 road, " hold hard, I tell you ; what the devil are you aboot, driv- 

 ing the hounds before you over the scent ? the older you get the 

 bigger fool you get? " Now," said Mr. Cosser to me, as he re- 

 lated the anecdote, " I shouldn't have minded all this, had it not 

 been that there were two gentlemen fifty yards before me, down 

 the road, at the time." Doubtless this somewhat alters the case ; 

 but so good a sportsman, and so excellent a rider as Mr. Cosser 

 is, should not have been seduced into so heinous a fault in a 

 huntsman's eyes, as pressing upon hounds down a road, where 

 the scent is always in danger of being lost. 



Riding across wheat fields is thought more of in Scotland that 

 it is in England, and this reminds me of a good anecdote of 

 Williamson. Having killed his fox in a turnpike-road, he saw a 

 iiirmer, who had been defeated by the pace, coming sailing away 

 down a large field of growing wheat. " Ware wheat," roared 



* It may be well to explain to some of your readers that, when hounds 

 .sre quite off the scent, they are apt to go in the direction they see 

 horses going. Sportsmen, therefore, turn their horses towards the likely 



