jro NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 



trose, and at that time a candidate for Paisley. He was residing 

 in Melville Street, Edinburgh, awaiting the arrival of his son 

 and heir, who made his appearance soon afterwards, but not in 

 time for me to have a view of him. 



If he makes a better man than his father is, no one will com- 

 plain of him on that score ; and if he makes as good a one, he 

 will do. The result of our visit was an invitation to dinner, and 

 I was delighted at finding myself once more under the roof of 

 not only a kind and sincere friend, but of a gentleman who has 

 done so much to uphold the character of a sportsman, and of 

 sporting generally. 



Our next visit was to the stables of Mr. Inglis, the principal 

 Edinburgh horse-dealer ; and I found him, what Lord Elcho had 

 represented him to be a person of respectable appearance, and 

 of good address, entirely divested of blarney. In other words, he 

 appeared to be a man with whom business could be transacted 

 offhand, in a straightforward, business-like manner, which 

 cannot be said of all those who follow his calling. There is 

 generally too much "gab" about them, to use a still more vulgar 

 term, and a lesson from Hesiod on the provident use of the 

 tongue the happy medium would be of more service than they 

 are aware of. I have been more than once under the necessity 

 of exclaiming to a dealer, " D n it, my good fellow, tell me the 

 price of your horse, and P II find out the rest myself" 



As may be supposed, during the hour I passed in Mr. Inglis's 

 stables, horses, their form, and merits were the chief topic of our 

 conversation. "Have you purchased that horse from Lord 

 Kintore yet ?" said I to Mr. Inglis, with a look which he under- 

 stood. " I have not/ 7 he replied ; " but if you tell me where he 

 is to be found, I will go some hundred miles (and put some hun- 

 dreds in my pocket) to see him/ 7 But hereon hangs a tale. 

 Being about to describe the form and points of a hunter, for a 

 certain work, I wrote to Lord Kintore, to request he would give 

 me his ideas of the modern hunter, in his very best form. My 

 friend's answer was to the purpose, the following transcript of 

 a letter he had that day written to Inglis : 



" When you happen to have a horse answering this description, 

 drop me a line : Thorough-bred, with substance and action ; 

 fit to carry fourteen stone through dirt ; height 15 . 2 ; not more 

 than seven years old ; colour dark brown, dark grey, dark chest- 

 nut, or dark bay ; small head ; large nostril ; no coaching neck ; 

 light at the throat lash ; good shoulders ; deep at his girth ; with 

 strong back and loins ; good gaskins ; good sound feet and legs ; 

 neither too short nor too long in the pasterns ; warranted sound, 

 and with good temper." 



