NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 145 



of meeting during- my visit to Mellerstain. The captain, it appeared, 

 had lately returned from sea, having been for some time on a foreign 

 station, and immediately purchased for himself a hunter. Now two 

 things must be premised ere I proceed in my tale. Either Williamson 

 had never seen the captain before, or, having seen him, had forgotten 

 him. Again, the captain was in Mufti*, which never adds to the out- 

 ward and visible sign of any gentleman-sportsman in the field, at least in 

 a huntsman's eyes. Again— captains in the navy (at least I can answer 

 for one, a particular friend of mine, who makes a perfect non-descriptf 

 of himself when he takes the field ; but, as the poet says, 



" What's the gay dolphin 



When he quits the waves and bounds upon the shore 1 ") 



are apt to be less observant of costume than when at home on the quarter 

 deck ; and there is no disguising the fact, that Williamson the first time 

 he saw Captain Elliot on the newly purchased grey, did not take him to 

 be, what he really is, a well-bred gentleman. The following various 

 conversations then, which the captain recapitulates with the greatest 

 candour— indeed with apparent satisfaction— took place between them at 

 the different periods of their meeting at the cover side. 



First period. Williamson speaks. 



" Not a bad-looking rough beast that of your's. What age is he t " 



* The word " Mufti/' in the hunting field, means anything but a red coat. 



t Don't let it be imagined that I place Captain Elliot amongst the non-descripts.- 

 Far from it ; but such was the plainness of his attire the first day I saw him in the 

 field, that, until I heard him speak, I was myself at a loss as to what order he mig t 

 belong. 



U 



