214 NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 



I to him as I alighted from the carriage at the castle. " Wall, 

 it was a vany kittle (Scottice queer] place," was all the reply he 

 made ; and surely Longinus himself could not have given a more 

 concise one. 



Thursday, 25. " See what it is to have a bit of religion about 

 one," said, Jack Willan a short time back, when his cad's leg was 

 broken by the axle-tree of his coach breaking on a Sunday -, when 

 Jack never " tools 'em." " See what it is not to be of the kirk of 

 ocotland," say I ; for Mr. Ramsay's hounds had a splendid run 

 on this day (Christmas Day), whilst Lord Kintore's were snug in 

 their kennel. But although we could not hunt on Christmas 

 Day, we saw something that reminded us of hunting. We 

 walked to " Kintore's-gorse," which is hard by, and certainly a 

 finer was never seen, neither was a finer hunting day ever seen 

 or felt. 



(Not a murmur's on the mountain, 

 And the vale is mute as death ; 



And the mirror of the fountain 

 Is unbroken by a breath, ) 



and the sky, as sunset approached, presented the grandest aerial 

 landscape, if I may be allowed so to call it, that I ever remember 

 to have witnessed, and drew forth our mutual admiration. But. 

 as Thomson says of the flowers 



" Who can paint 



Like nature ? Can imagination boast, 

 Amid its gay creation, hues like hers ?" 



And who can wonder, thought I within myself, that the un- 

 tutored Indian should believe he sees God in the clouds, and 

 bears him in the wind ? 



We had to-day another trial of the Turriff post-boy ; but 

 wishing to avoid another " kittle place," he was provided with 

 lamps to lighten his darkness, " We shall eat our Christmas 

 dinner," said Lord Kintore to me on the previous evening, " with 

 that honest-hearted Scotch squire, whom you saw the other day 

 in the field Mr. Leslie, of Dunlugas, who has a beautiful place 

 on the banks of the Deveron river, between this and Banff ;" and 

 at six o'clock we were at our post. The " honest-hearted Scotch 

 squire" had asked a few good fellows to meet us ;* and although 

 the philosophers will have it there are no happy lives, they admit 

 there are happy days, and this with us was one of them ; and we 

 made the most of it. Lord Kintore gave us " The Swell Drags- 



* Among them were Mr. Morison, who has also a beautiful place 

 called Mount Blaines, on Deveron's banks ; Mr. Abercromby Duff, Mr. 

 Nesbitt, brother-in-law to that celebrated sportsman the Hon. Martin 

 Hawke, &c., c. 



