223 NIM ROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



thigh ; " I have been to-day at the settling, and see what a heap 

 of bank notes is in my pocket !" " Ye'll no believe him," whis- 

 pered David in the inquirer's ear, "it's a horseboot the Captain 

 has gotten in his pocket" 



It is said no man can be called a coachman unless he has once 

 floored a coach, forasmuch as until he has done so he knows not 

 how to get her up again. Up to the time I left Scotland the 

 Captain had only floored his once, and his description of the 

 solitary event was capital. " She fell as easy as though she had 

 fallen on a feather bed ; and, looking out for a soft place, I 

 alighted comfortably on my feet." Speaking seriously, however, 

 the Captain is a safe coachman, and to prove his being of opinion 

 that it is never too late to improve, he now and then goes to 

 Cambridge and back with Joe Walton on the Star, for the pur- 

 pose of having a lesson from that very superior artist. Lord 

 Kintore, indeed, calls the Captain, " Joe Walton secundus !" 



I should much have liked to have been on the Defiance at the 

 time I am now going to allude to. A snob of a passenger took 

 it into his head to be offended at something the Captain, who 

 was driving, did or said ; and at length his ire prompted him to 

 tell him having mistaken him for one of the coachmen that 

 if he was on the ground, instead of on the box, he would give him 

 a thump on the head ; adding, most emphatically, the following 

 bravado : "Ay, if you were the great Captain Barclay him- 

 self !^ The Captain was silent until he alighted at the next 

 change, when his passenger also alighted. " Now, sir," said the 

 Captain, " I am the great Captain Barclay himself, ready to 

 receive your thump on the head." The result may be imagined 

 it was " no go" 



It cannot be a matter of surprise that the efforts of Captain 

 Barclay and his coadjutor, Hugh Watson, Esq., of Keillor, in 

 establishing a coach to perform a distance of ground extending 

 over one hundred and twenty-nine miles, including a ferry to be 

 crossed, in twelve hours and thirty-five minutes, should be grate- 

 fully appreciated by his countrymen and friends, and that they 

 should feel a desire to offer them some lasting memorial of the 

 same. The following account, then, extracted from the Aber- 

 deen Journal, will best show in what way this pleasing task was 

 performed, the only alloy to which was the absence, through 

 illness, of some of the Captain's most esteemed friends : 



DINNER AT FORFAR. 



On Wednesday, July ist, 1835, a number of gentlemen con- 

 nected with the counties of Forfar, Perth, Kincardine, and Aber- 

 deen, met here to present to Captain Barclay, of Ury, and Mr, 



