192 NIMRO&S NORTHERN TOUR 



I remember hearing an anecdote, some years back, in reference 

 to this town, which has long been a nursery of science. The 

 first man who possessed a barometer in Great Britain and, for 

 aught I know, he may have been the inventor of it was one 

 David Gregory, of Aberdeen, born in 1661. Being able, by the 

 means of this instrument, to foretell, to a certain extent, the 

 future state of the weather, he was believed to have held inter- 

 course with beings of another world.* I, of course, looked into 

 the College, in which the students wear red gowns (but not red 

 coats), as I -conclude they did in the days of Burnet and Arbuth- 

 not, who finished their education within its walls ; and also when 

 Dr. Johnson found a constellation of talent in its chairs, which 

 did honour to Scotland, as well as great service to mankind. 



At a comfortable hour of the morning of the 22nd, I found 

 myself on the box of not the Earl of Fife's coach but of the 

 Earl of Fife Banff drag, the driver of which had received the 

 office from Mr. M'Cray that I was to drive his horses if I liked ; 

 and surely no man had a greater right to give such an order, the 

 said horses being his own. This coach was to convey me to a 

 certain point of the great North road about twenty-five miles 

 from Aberdeen which Lord Kintore would cross that day on 

 his road from Keith Hall to his hunting-seat at Gask, and 

 where he had engaged to meet me himself, with a horse for me 

 to ride, and likewise what he calls his " luggage-cart," for the 

 purpose of conveying my traps said luggage cart being also 

 crossing the country as usual, on that day, from one kennel to 

 the other, in the hunting season. 



According with my general custom rendered still more es- 

 sential from the fact of this Magazine now traversing the remotest 

 parts of the civilized world I give a short introduction of each 

 master of fox-hounds on entering their respective countries, as 

 well of the countries themselves. That of Forfarshire, and the 

 hounds that I hunted within it, will be concluded after my 

 second visit to Burnside, when I shall have had a longer expe- 

 rience of them. 



The Earl of Kintore has been a master of fox-hounds in Eng- 

 land and Scotland nearly twenty years having commenced as 

 soon as he left Oxford ; and having a fine estate in the latter 

 country, is entitled to indulge himself in this his favourite pur- 

 suit ; and truly fox-hunting may be said to be his predominant 

 passion. As a judge of hounds his name stands high in the 



* This, perhaps, was only an idle tale to amuse those who knew no 

 better. Dr. Gregory, of Aberdeen, was the inventor of the reflecting 

 t :lescope. 



