NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 5 



my deceased friend is characteristic of the man, although not of the 

 country which gave birth to it, at the same time that, when associated 

 with the native humour of its people, it cannot but create a smile. A 

 sporting yeoman in his neighbourhood, and an esteemed judge in horse- 

 flesh, had eloquence sufficient to induce Sir Harry to leave three hundred 

 pounds in his hands with which he was to purchase for him " a pair of 

 hunters" that were to beat every horse in Leicestershire. Whether such 

 non-pareils were not to be found, is not for me to say ; but one thing- 

 is certain — no horses, either good or bad, were sent to Leicestershire. 

 Then, what said the Baronet when he arrived in Lowth the next sum- 

 mer ? Why, nothing ; but going over to the sporting yeoman's house, he 

 took his two best hunters out of the meadow in which they were regaling 

 themselves, and had them led to his own stables. 



There must be something forcibly striking to any person on his first 

 landing in England, after a long sojourn in France, and perhaps nothing 

 more so — at least such is my own case — than the absence of that violent 

 gesticulation which accompanies speech on this side the water; and 

 which, on very interesting topics, is carried to such a pilch as to justify 

 the extravagant encomium of a Latin writer on some eminent professors 

 of the pantomimic art — namely, that " in each of their eloquent hands, 

 there was a tongue." 



The following morning I took my place on the box of the Eagle coach, 

 which leaves Dover at eight o'clock, a.m. ; and here I must draw one 

 more comparison between the country I was now in, and that which I 

 had just left. When comparing the literature of the two nations, a 

 French writer of acknowledged abilities candidly says, that he had been 

 at a loss to determine in what department of it his countrymen excelled 



