NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 57 



songstress — in the drawing room, we adjourned to a very large unfinished 

 room in the castle, to witness the extraordinary performance of a blind 

 man upon the harp. One of the young ladies sang for him two airs to 

 her guitar, and shall I ever forget the expression of delight his counte- 

 nance beamed with, as the melody of her voice reached his ear? It 

 wanted not the index to the soul — of which he appeared to have been 

 long- since deprived — to show where it touched him ; and when I saw 

 the involuntary contortions of his frame, I could have exclaimed with 

 Milton :— 



" What of sweet 



Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this." 



Thus is " the wind tempered to the shorn lamb." And thankful 

 should we be that it is so. 



It has many times been observed of fox-hunting, and in its praise, 

 that it is somewhat of a Saturnalian amusement, bringing, to a certain 

 extent, all men upon a level. But it does more than this. It renders 

 a man superior to many of those little trials and personal inconveniences 

 which would not otherwise be submitted to by those who had the power 

 of avoiding them. In short, if I may be allowed the expression, it 

 makes a man a man. I myself had walked to Dunse-castle this night, 

 a dark and wet one in November, in a rough great coat and strong- 

 shoes, with my pumps in my pocket, because the expense of a post- 

 chaise did not square with my purse, but such could not be said of the 

 young noblemen at the cottage, who had still further to travel than I 

 had. When the party broke up, however, I saw the rough great coats, 

 and the strong shoes, and the pumps in the pocket were the order of the 



day, or rather of the night, with them — with this difference, that their 



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