no NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 



the side of the Tweed however, one day, as Williamson was 

 finding his fox, he was fortunate enough to view him away, and 

 of course " gave the office." " Who is that holloaing away the 

 fox?" inquired the Duke; "it is a sportsman I am sure" It 

 was Musters ; to whom his Grace immediately made an offer of 

 a mount so long as he remained in Scotland, but which that 

 celebrated sportsman declined, having no hunting clothes at 

 command. 



It may readily be imagined that I was not a little in the dumps 

 at this apparent prospect of a serious stop to hunting, and that 

 the sight of fifteen salmon, out of season, or even the Arcadian 

 scenery of the Tweed, was a poor substitute for the Duke of 

 Buccleuch's fox-hounds, and a good day's sport. Moreover, 

 Williamson had brought me the most agreeable intelligence that 

 his Grace had ordered a horse to be at cover for me so long as I 

 remained at Kelso. The day, however, despite of frost and fog, 

 was not, as Thompson says, " delightless," for at this period of 

 it a trifling circumstance occurred that gave me great pleasure, 

 inasmuch as it left its moral. This was the manner in which 

 Lord Elcho addressed the toll-bar keeper and his wife, for old 

 acquaintance sake, and no doubt in recollection of the sport he 

 had had in company with the former, amongst the finny tribe. 

 To make my story short he shook them both heartily by their 

 hands, and right-well pleased did they show themselves with the 

 compliment paid them. But the moral ! Why simply this ; 

 That no difference in rank and station allows a thoroughly kind- 

 hearted man to stifle feelings nature has gifted him with, and 

 that they will burst forth when she calls. Nor is this all. There 

 must have been a heartfelt consciousness in the old couple that 

 their good conduct could alone have entitled them to this publicly- 

 bestowed honour. No wonder then that as I have already said 

 he is Lord Elcho is popular. Pride and ill-nature will be hated 

 in spite of all the wealth and all the greatness this world can 

 bestow; but civility is always safe. Even the double diadem of 

 Demetrius could not command regard. 



In an hour from this time, the Dunse party mounted the 

 double-bodied phaeton that had brought them to Kelso; Mr. 

 Fletcher Campbell remounted his hack ; and, like the Doctor in 

 the fable, the redoubted Peter 



" Took his leave with signs of sorrow, 

 Despairing of his fee to-morrow." 



And what was left for me ? Nothing but Noctes Ambrosianae in 

 Blackwoo&s Magazine & great treat I admit, and a substitute 



