NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 107 



a wider jSeld for the formation of character and the exercise of it after- 

 wards than that of a waiter at a large inn, upon a much frequented road? 

 And where is the man in this part of Scotland who does not ken the said 

 Peter ? For my own part, I could not find any such ignoramus. My 

 own acquaintance with him, however, began as follows : — 



There is nothing more striking than the look of reception — if I maybe 

 allowed such term — a man experiences at the moment of his approaching 

 the door of a large inn. In fact, from Boniface himself to Bill the 

 boots, a pretty exact estimate is instantly made of his intrinsic value, and 

 the " look of reception" is in exact accordance with said estimate. Now 

 my appearance was of a somewhat dubious nature. No doubt, but at first 

 I might have been taken for what is commonly called a coaching bag- 

 man, — by which is implied, a commercial gentleman w'ho travels by 

 coaches instead of by his own " horse and chaise," but who hires a horse 

 and chaise when there is no coach from one town to another, as was the 

 case here on this day. Under such circumstances, then, what more could 

 I expect from Peter, on alighting from the gig, than what I got? which 

 was exactly this : '^ Show the gentleman into No. 2, mid stir thejire;" 

 when Peter and his napkin appeared to vanish into air. 



But a waiter at an inn of this sort makes a near approach to perpetual 

 motion, at all events to a kind of mortal ubiquity; and something requiring 

 Peter's re-appearance at the door, he saw amongst my traps in the gig, 

 what induced him to believe he was mistaken as to the gentleman in No. 

 2, and he not only saw a hunting whip and some boot-trees, but he also 

 heard something that settled the point at once. " The gentleman has 

 been stopping at our /ioitSP,"said the post-boy, " a7id he is come here to 

 hunt ivith the duke. 



p2 



