NIM ROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 24-3 



times. I likewise dined with Mr. Earle, in Gloucester Place, 

 where we talked over what we had seen in Fife, and drank a 

 bumper to " Walker, and the noble science ;" also with Mr. 

 Henry Stewart, of St. Fort House, near Dundee, where I met 

 Col. Fotheringham, at whose house Mr. Musters was on a visit, 

 when he .viewed away the fox, whilst fishing in the Tweed, and 

 surprised the field by his holloa. 



Colonel Fotheringham mentioned a fact worth relating to per- 

 sons who breed horses, and who may perchance have one that 

 bids fair to get the better of man. I allude to Provincial, one of 

 the three celebrated hunters I have spoken of as bred by Lord 

 Panmure, and ridden by Lord Kintore. He was on the point of 

 being given up as incurable, when his groom had recourse to the 

 following desperate expedient. He mounted him, bare-backed, 

 in the park, armed with a heavy stick. No sooner was he seated 

 than the horse reared and fell backwards ; but assistance being 

 at hand, he was prevented rising from the ground until he had 

 received a severe thrashing, which cured him. I once possessed 

 a mare, by Castrel, bred by the late Mr. Shakerley, which beat 

 all the colt breakers in Cheshire, which I sold for isogs. to Mr. 

 Smythe Owen, the present master of the North Shropshire 

 hounds. How she was conquered at last, after being turned out 

 for two years, I never learnt, but Mr. Shakerley sold her for ten 

 pounds, supposing her to be incurable. Captain Johnson was 

 also of our party at Mr. Stewart's. He was a few seasons at 

 Melton, and once hunted Mr. Ramsay's country ; but I had not 

 the pleasure of meeting him in the field. 



Bidding adieu for the present to sportsmen, I must now get 

 among the togati. I was introduced by Mr. Blackwood to Pro- 

 fessor Cheape, whose name was familiar to me, by having been 

 amongst his relations in Fife ; and I had the pleasure of dining 

 with him twice. He is a professor of Scotch law ; and judging 

 from what I saw and heard of him, I should think that, unlike 

 those of his tribe at Philippi, he professes nothing that he does 

 not perform. By myself, he performed a very kind action. He 

 introduced me to Professor Napier, editor of the Edinburgh Re- 

 view, whom I met at a second large dinner party at his house, 

 and the introduction led to my writing those articles in the 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica of which he is also editor and for 

 which I was handsomely remunerated. " And did not you at- 

 tend Professor Cheape's lectures, as well as his excellent din- 

 ners ?' is a question that some persons may ask. Not I, indeed. 

 No human being, as I have read, ever loved, for its own sake, 

 the study of Scotch law, however time may beget a fondness for 

 it : and I remember what Hume (not Joey) said of Lord Kames'i 



16 2 



