NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 179 



I was this day invited to a large dinner party, atDunse, given by Lord 

 Saltoun and Mr. M'Dowal Grant; but great as was the temptation, I was 

 unwilling to miss the next day's hunting with the duke, and a mount 

 from his Grace's stud. Mr. Callander and myself then — for he was 

 kind enough to wait the restoration of the bodily powers of my horse — 

 set forward for Kelso just as the night was setting in. And here I have 

 a word to say. I had formed an opinion that the lower orders of the 

 Scottish peoplOjby the beneficial effects of education, unknown to English 

 boors, were humanized by such means far beyond their neighbours. It 

 may be so ; and we should not judge, generally, by individual cases ; but 

 Mr. Callander will back my assertion, that a more ruffianly set of fellows 

 than the drivers of the one horse carts which we met that night on the 

 road, never disgraced any civilized country. In fact, such was their 

 recklessness of limb or life towards those persons they met, or passed, 

 that it was next to miraculous that no accident occurred. As for our- 

 selves, although by the fact of Mr. Callander being mounted on a white 

 horse, our approach was sufficiently visible, it was only by creeping into 

 ditches that we twice saved ourselves from being run down, when on 

 the right side of a very wide road. Drunkenness might have been 

 pleaded in excuse, it being market day, but of what avail is education if 

 it correct not such evils as this, and in a country purely agricultural ? 



Having arrived in safety at Kelso, a change of scene presented itself. 

 The Cross Keys inn looked as if it was illuminated, at least every 

 room in the house appeared occupied, and, as we entered the gateway, 

 the words " hip, hip, hip, Hoo-ray," resounded in our ears from 

 above, as the welcoming of a popular toast. " There is a jovial set 

 somewhere," said I to my friend, " no doubt they are drinking ' Fox- 

 hunting.' " The cheering sound, however, proceeded from a party com- 



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