NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 107 



servant. But I cannot stop here. " The very devil is in these 

 Scotch servants," said I to myself, after half an hour's conver- 

 sation with this young man in the Dalkeith stables, " they all talk 

 like philosophers." However, to be serious, this said whipper-in 

 discoursed with me on various subjects, one of them a fine run 

 on the preceding day, in language, the structure of which would 

 have done for Professor Wilson in his chair. How different, 

 thought I within myself, was this man's account of the various 

 incidents of the day he was speaking of to that given some 

 twenty years ago by one of his craft in England, when informing 

 his fellow-servants of an accident that befell the daughter of his 

 noble master in the field. It appeared that the young lady's 

 mare, called Arachne, had stumbled with her in her gallop, and, 

 unable to recover herself, came head over heels with her to the 

 ground. The whipper-in's version of her ladyship's mishap was 

 verbatim this : " Turn," said she ; " My lady," says Oi ; " Why, 

 what dun you think, Turn ? The Rackne mare put her foot in a 

 hole and come over tip, by G ." 



Both the whippers-in the second is young, and so exempt 

 from criticism are of Williamson's own making, I do not mean 

 the issue of his loins, but instructed in their calling by himself. 

 And his notions on this subject are certainly worthy of record. 

 " There's no two things," said he one day to Sir David Baird, 

 " so difficult to make perfect as a whipper-in and a terrier, at 

 least I find it so. The greatest perseverance and patience are 

 necessary to make them know their business." " They come to 

 the wrong shop for one of those articles when they come to 

 yours," said the Baronet. But a joke often passes between these 

 two noted sportsmen allowable, it will be admitted, when it is 

 recollected that the one was the favoured servant of the revered 

 father of the other. 



Surely it is now high time that the Mi-nis-ter's mare and Nim- 

 rod should be on their road to Kelso ; and, after one of the most 

 unpleasant rides I ever had in my life, for the night was as dark 

 as the minister's mare was black, and the ice was in places just 

 as smooth as her well-worn shoes, I arrived there to a second 

 dinner, at a little after seven. Sufficient for the day, then, is the 

 evil thereof; and, as Milton says, 



" To-morroiv to fresh fields and pastures new." 



MONDAY, 24th. From the strength of the ice so early on the 

 preceding evening, I had serious misgivings as to the probability 

 of hunting on the morrow, and they were verified to the full ex- 

 tent. The fixture for this day was Kelso-bridge, but that unwel- 



