M NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



run notliing, provided he gets to the end of it. He rides light, with a 

 very good hand and well steeled nerve, which every man should have 

 who rides straight over Berwickshire, as I shall soon make apparent. 



But I have now a phenomenon to present to my readers — at least if I 

 rightly comprehend the meaning and derivation of that word. This 

 is the — to me — most striking fact of as strong a horseman as T have 

 ever seen in a saddle, in the person of a man weighing not more 

 than nine stone, jockey weight; and this person is Mr. M'Kenzie 

 Grieve, late of the Horse Guards Blue, but now residing upon his pro- 

 perty near Dunse, and of whom I spoke before. But when I am 

 here speaking of a strong horseman, dont let it be supposed that I 

 am merely alluding to that power of hand and seat which can restrain 

 the race horse in his course, but which in the diificulties that such 

 a rider over a country as Mr. Grieve is exposed to, have been found nir.e 

 times out often of no avail; but I am alluding to that command of a 

 resisting force from the saddle which enables a man to recover his horse 

 from difficulties which appear perfectly insurmountable ; and likewise 

 to be immoveable from his seat — as I shall presently show is Mr. 

 Grieve's case — by the most violent and unlocked for shock that the 

 body of a horse can encounter without its being dashed to atoms. It 

 might well be asked, whence the fulcrum from which this lever power 

 is derived ? The question would best be answered by an anatomical 

 section of Mr. Grieve's person, which, for a horseman, is perfect sym- 

 metry. He has not only that length of fork which affords the clip, or 

 gripe, that renders him immoveable from his seat, but he has the true 

 horseman's thigh, well hollowed out within, with strongly developed 

 muscles without. Now having said this much in praise of Mr. Grieve 

 as a horseman, I wish I could continue in the same strain of commen- 



