68 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



the same route to Morpeth. It is said to travel at the rate of fourteen 

 miles in the hour ! 



It would require the aid of the pencil to show how the horses are put 

 into this curricle mail, which merely consists of a close body, like that 

 of a dog cart, with a seat before for the driver, and a chair behind for 

 the guard exactly on the principle of that to the regular mail coach. 

 But the singular part of the affair consists in the bar passing under the 

 bellies of the horses, instead of over their backs, which makes it very 

 awkward to put them to, and take them from, the carriage ; and will 

 account for the landlord having told me, that a pair of blood mares of his 

 own breeding were not made steady at these times, under three months. 

 It is doubtless a carriage for speed, being near to the ground, and so 

 hung as to throw very little weight on the horse's backs; but I was told 

 it now and then gets floored, as indeed what very fast drag does not ? 

 The last time I was in Edinburgh, I saw one of these carriages in the 

 streets, in a cart, fractured in all parts ; as they say on the road indeed, 

 after a very bad mishap, *' the drag might have been brought home in 

 a sack." It has now been going ten or twelve years, and is a great 

 convenience to Edinburgh. 



When on my Yorkshire Tour I was frequently at a loss, when inquir- 

 ing my road, &c., from the want of a glossary of words, particularly in 

 the county of Durham ; so took the first opportunity of ascertaining how 

 I should fare in Scotland in the use of my English tongue and ears, and 

 this presented itself to me this morning on the road from Dunse to Corn- 

 hill. I overtook a farmer's boy on a good looking old horse, when the 

 following dialogue took place. 



