NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 153 



forth the huntsman, with the duke's pad groom behind him, command- 

 ing the respect and admiration of all whom he met. Now Williamson 

 needs not the aid of borrowed plumes ; but there cannot be a doubt that 

 in these days of creation, he was mistaken by many for a newly-made, 

 lord— for one of old Wetherall's " pitchforked lot," upon a late memo- 

 rable occasion. 



I have hitherto only been speaking of Williamson as a servant to a noble 

 duke, as a huntsman to a pack of fox-hounds, as a horseman, and as a 

 sportsman, but must now place him before my readers in a very different 

 light — as a man of education and of reading, an elder of the Scottish kirk, 

 and a Laird of the parish of St. Boswell's, where I am told he possesses a 

 very pretty estate. In the two latter relations I have nothing further to 

 say of him than to express my sincere wish that he may long continue an 

 elder of the Scottish kirk, and a laird of the parish of St. Boswell's; 

 and I shall\ quickly dispatch him in the first-named position — as a man 

 of education and of reading. I shall deal with him as Homer deals with 

 Helen— show him off, in fact, by one single stroke. A matter of history 

 being one day discussed by the cover's side, without any of the field being 

 able to determine it, a reference was made to Williamson, who instantly 

 decided the point. Clarendon says of some one, that '< his education 

 had been good amongst books and men ;" Williamson, it appears, has 

 partaken of the fruits of the former, if he have not profited by the 

 latter; but a slender education tells on a strength of intellect like 

 his. 



I must now, however, take leave of the sayings and doings of this 

 extraordinary man until we meet again in the hunting-field, and I hope 

 he will forgive the length of my notice of him. But I have an apology 



