NIMROUS NOR THERN TO UR. 125 



friends had retired into a private room, Mr. Callander and my- 

 self joined them, and described the fine run we had had in the 

 morning, with St. Paul, in the pleasure of which they partici- 

 pated, from regard to the owner of the hounds, and I was con- 

 gratulated on my escape from the Till, which several of the 

 party declared to be the most dangerous river in the country, 

 from the numerous holes with which it abounds, in addition to 

 the rapidity of the current. Mr. Sitwell, they said, was saved in 

 it as by a miracle, by catching the end of the lash of a whipper- 

 in's whip, just as his strength had ceased to enable him to 

 struggle any longer against the stream. 



I have already observed that few men work harder than the 

 Duke of Buccleuch does, and here is one proof. Seeing his 

 Grace booted and spurred, and with a'whip in his hand, I asked 

 him " how he was going home." " On horseback," was the 

 reply. Now the night was neither wet nor rough, but so dark 

 that one gentleman, though perfectly sober, had a miraculous 

 escape for his life by falling, horse and all, down a precipice 

 close to the river Tweed, into which his horse went. On my 

 asking his Grace afterwards, how he got to Bow Wood, full 

 twenty miles, he answered, " Oh ! very well ; a neighbouring 

 miller and myself travelled very comfortably together." Now 

 this circumstance would not be worthy of mention here were it 

 not for a comment upon it ; and I think I know enough of 

 human nature, at all events of the nature of that description of 

 men whom the duke had this day honoured with his company 

 at a convivial meeting at Kelso to pronounce that had his 

 Grace stepped out of his carriage and four, on his arrival, and 

 into it at his departure, it would have stripped the honour he 

 had conferred upon his countrymen of much of its value in their 

 eyes. This sort of cessio bonorum, if I may be allowed a lawyer's 

 phrase this putting himself personally on a par with the smallest 

 farmer at the dinner, was, I will answer for it, not void of effect, 

 although perhaps unintentional on the duke's part ; and the 

 riding " comfortably home with the miller," like Mr. Hay's 

 fi-nish to his speech, was the climax. 



It amused me to hear that the duke introduced into his speech, 

 not only the great advantages farmers derive from fox-hunting, 

 but as much as told them, that their corn and grass would be all 

 the better for being ridden over. If his Grace's words were to 

 be taken literally, perhaps they would not always be borne out 

 by experience ; but with reference to consequences they were 

 strictly true. 



The next morning, Saturday, 29th, the punctuality of Peter 

 was once more to be put to the test. Having again sixteen miles 



