152 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



Williamson, " So much the worse; there s the force of example'': 



Now there is no longer a doubt but that Williamson can blow up ; 

 but that o-em must be rich indeed which can afford to be set without a 

 foil, For my own part, however, were I not Nimrod, J would any day 

 stand a rating from him, for the sake of the peculiarly forcible language 

 in which I know it would be conveyed to me. And suppose I give 

 rather a convincing proof of this power of words, the result of a nervous 

 tone, in the pronunciation of them, which never fails to have effect, par- 

 ticularly in the art of persuading or advising. In his journey to London, 

 in the mail-coach, he obtained suiEcient influence over one of his' fellow- 

 passengers, a person in a large way of business, to take into his employ 

 a young man upon his sole recommendation, and this to a situation in 

 which much confidence was required. I question whether Demosthenes 

 himself could have done so much by any wary Greek, as Williamson did by 

 his brother Scot, and had he — as against another iEschines — been pitted 

 against him in the coach, I should have backed the copious simplicity of 

 the huntsman even against the majestic address of the orator. In 

 power of voice he would not have had a chance with him. 



But have I nothing more to say of my hero during his visit to London ? 

 Yes— one little anecdote. ** Williamson," said the duke, " you should 

 see some of the lions of London, the two parks, &c. &c." *' Wall, 

 your grace," repHed Williamson, '' I should greatly like to do so; but / 

 dorit know the country and shall be lost.'' The duke immediately 

 ordered one of his own hacks to be saddled for him, and away sallied 



* The Aquilian law — the reparation of wrongs— ia in force here; and a bill for 

 damage is now and then brought in. 



