n2 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



stitution in men might be renovated by four or five years of tem- 

 perate living, early hours, and rest. 



We had an addition to our dinner party this day of Colonel 

 Gordon, of Park, an intimate friend of his lordship, and I conclude 

 the representative of a gentleman of that name and place men- 

 tioned by Dr. Johnson, as having been on a visit to the Earl of 

 Errol, at the period of his visiting him. His name was familiar 

 to me by having a short time previously read in the papers of an 

 extraordinary leap taken in his grounds, by Lord Kintore's 

 whipper-in, Jack Wilson, with the very mare that his lordship 

 mounted me upon on my descent from the Banff coach box. 

 But in reference to his name I have another observation to make. 

 He had been introduced to me as Colonel Gordon, and yet I 

 heard my host perpetually calling him " Park." " How can this 

 be ?" said I to myself ; '* I must have miscomprehended my 

 friend. ;; I found out, however, upon inquiry, that it is usual, in 

 Scotland, to call gentlemen by the names of their places, as well 

 as by their proper names. A moment's consideration suggests 

 the propriety of this distinction as without it the Campbells and 

 the M'Gregors would be very difficult to particularize; and if 

 the" Joneses and Williamses of Wales, as well as the Smiths of 

 England, were thus registered amongst their acquaintance, it 

 would save a multitude of questions. " Pray what Mr. Jones 

 may you want?" said the porter of Jesus College, Oxford, to the 

 Mr. Jones who inquired for his cousin. " Mr. John Jones," said 

 the inquirer. " There are eleven Mr. John Joneses in college," 

 replied the porter. 



About nine o'clock it was announced to us, as we sat over our 

 wine, that " the lamps were lighted ;" and now quite a new scene 

 presented itself. This was the sight of a pack of fox-hounds on 

 their beds, by the reflection of patent lamps, with very bright re- 

 flectors ; and I must say I never witnessed a more interesting 

 sight of a like description than this was. The dog-hounds took 

 but little notice of us on our entrance ; most of them, indeed, 

 appeared to regard us as intruders on their repose, and never 

 raised their heads from the comfortable position in which they 

 had placed them ;f but, as it were to mark the characteristic 



* It is possible some of my readers may never have seen a pack of 

 fox-hounds in this situation in a state of repose for the night ; and I 

 wonder it has not attracted the notice of an artist, for it would make a 

 beautiful and interesting picture. Their bodies appear as it were dove- 

 failed into each other ; and they seem absolutely to place themselves 

 with a view to the comfort of their neighbours as well as to that of 

 themselves, especially in allowing them to make pillows of their carcases 

 for their heads. 



