48 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



describing a run over Leicestershire, in which his horse was represented to 

 be a good deal the worse for liaving gone " the pace" for best part of an 

 hour with sixteen stone on his back. But it is not only as a good sports- 

 man — as one very fond of hounds, and a very superior horseman that I 

 have to represent Mr. Campbell. It is said that the gods, having taken 

 pity on the race of mortals, born to evil as the sparks fly upwards, have 

 given them the Muses, and Apollo their leader, and Bacchus their 

 friend, not only to amuse them, but also to reform their manners, and 

 soften their souls ; and here we have their representative in the Laird of 

 Saddell*. We have the poet, the songster, the jovial companion, the 

 sportsman, and the horseman, all combined in one man, and that is 

 saying as much as i need say although 1 could say more. There is more 

 of the gaiety of Anacreon in Mr. Campbell's character than I ever re- 

 member to have met with before, and he has poetical talent that might 

 have been turned to a good account had he been obh'ged to make use of 

 it. He could have written the Pythic ode, and have sung it afterwards. 



But my readers shall not take all this on my word alone ; I will give 

 them a specimen of his lyrick muse in an off-hand song he made one 

 night in 1833, at Rossie Priory — the seat of Lord Kinnaird — on the 

 occasion of a famous run he had seen in the morning with Mr. Dalyell's 

 hounds, in Forfarshire, and which he sings most delightfully to the tune 

 of, " We have been Friends together," on the words of which it will be 

 perceived to be somewhat of a parody. It is dedicated to Walter Gil- 

 mour, Esq. of Melton celebrity, who enjoyed the sport with him. 



* I need scarcely inform such enlightened readers as mine are, that the allusion 

 to Bacchus is only to be considered in its proper light — as the inspirer of poetry. 

 Parnassus was sacred to Bacchus as well as to Apollo 3 and Horace says he is justly 

 ill the train of the Muses as Cupid is in that of his mother, without whose aid, she 

 herself confesses, she can do but little execution. 



