NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 14? 



look like the racer under seven ? Its effect is destructive to 

 horses of more than a certain degree of substance so much sa 

 indeed, than an inexperienced eye might have mistaken this fine 

 hunter for a brood mare just brought from the paddock. That 

 noted old sportsman, Major Shairp of Houston, also went well 

 on a weedy thorough-bred mare. I saw him jump a very wide 

 place, from a stand, in which he showed how well he could 

 handle them ; and he can go the pace too. On perceiving he 

 carried music about him, I asked him how happened it ? " Why," 7 

 replied he ; " this mare was sound when I turned her out, but 

 she came up a whistler." " Major," said I ; " you and myself 

 came into the world about the same time ; have you not yet 

 found out, what I found out thirty-two years ago to let well 

 alone ; and that half the hunters in Great Britain have been, 

 destroyed by being turned out to grass ?" The major said, as we 

 often say on other occasions, " I won't do so again" 



There was something about this Major Shairp that took my 

 fancy much, independently of his fine horsemanship, and nerve, 

 not very common at his period of life ; and also of his reputation 

 as a sportsman, which stands high in Scotland. There appeared 

 a straightforward open-heartedness about him, which, although 

 extremely agreeable in all descriptions of men, is, I must say, 

 the general characteristic of the sportsman. 



It is well said by Aristotle, " That he who is pleased with soli- 

 tude, must either be a beast, or a god !" As I hope I am not 

 the one, and am sure I am not the other, I have no predilection 

 for an evening by myself, even at Douglas's Hotel, with only a 

 newspaper to read. Such, however, would have been the case 

 on the evening of this day, had it not been for a somewhat strange 

 occurrence. It being dark when I arrived in Edinburgh, and 

 having forgotten on which side of the square my hotel was 

 situated, I was in the act of asking an old woman, when a voice 

 exclaimed " What ! Nimrod, is that you ?" Who should it be 

 but a near neighbour of mine in this country (France), who was 

 just arrived in Edinburgh to arrange some domestic affairs ; and 

 happening to be disengaged, he came and passed the evening 

 with me ! 



Previously to my rising on the following morning (Sunday, yth), 

 a note was brought to me from my old acquaintance Captain Dow- 

 biggen, to invite me to breakfast with him at the Royal Hotel, ia 

 Princes Street, when I should meet his brother-in-law, the Hon. 

 Fox Maule ; and after church, Captain Dowbiggen and myself 

 went to pay our respects to a very celebrated character in our 

 line the Captain Ross of the Red House, and of Melton Mow- 

 bray, but the Mr. Horatio Ross of Scotland, late M.P. for Moo- 



