NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 271 



farshire and Fife. The next morning, Mr. Whyte Melville re- 

 turned to hunt with the Fife ; and on Friday, 27th, I went to 

 Perth, on my road to Abercairney, the fine seat of the Highland 

 chief of that name. 



There were two circumstances connected with my visits to 

 Burnside that gave me cause for regret. One, that, in satisfac- 

 tion as it were of all the kindness I experienced there, I had it 

 not in my power to chronicle a series of good sport with Mr. 

 DalyelPs hounds ; the other, that circumstances prevented my 

 seeing the castle of Glammis, which (to use the language of Sir 

 Walter Scott*) " previously to the atrocity which under pretence 

 of improvement, deprived that lordly place of its appropriate 

 accompaniments, 



' ' ' Leaving an ancient dome and towers like these, 

 Beggar'd and outraged,' 



was the noblest specimen of the real feudal castle, entire and 

 perfect, that had as yet come under his inspection," to say 

 nothing of its intimate association with the bloody deeds of its 

 once royal owner, as recorded by our immortal Shakspeare. 

 Still, of all the curiosities to be seen there, the one which would 

 have most interested me, would, I think, have been the cap and 

 bells of the professed jester which this family, it appears, was 

 one of the last to keep. This race of beings is extinct, and no 

 wonder, for few persons are wise enough to play the fool well ; 

 and I cannot say but I regret that they are extinct. They must 

 have been an inexhaustible fund of entertainment, independently 

 of their having been the only medium through which persons of 

 a certain rank could ever hear the truth. I had a slight ac- 

 quaintance with the late Lord Glammis, and saw him a short 

 time before his death, which I fear was accelerated by not set- 

 ting more value on Lord Forester's maxim, that 'Tis the pace 

 that kills. 



Having arrived at Perth on Friday, February 27th, I found a 

 gig ready to convey me to Abercairney Abbey the fine seat of 

 James Moray, Esq., with whose brother, Major Moray Stirling, 

 who has also a seat close by, I became acquainted during his 

 several years' residence in Warwickshire for the purpose of hunt- 

 ing ; and to whose stud, and their good condition, I have alluded 

 in my " Letters on Condition of Hunters," in illustration of the 

 benefits derived from the in-door system in the summer, with 

 exercise. 



The distance from Perth to Abercairney is about ten miles, 



* See Lockhart's Life of Scott, for Sir Walter's description of this 



notable place. 



