180 NIMllOD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



posed of about half a dozen gentlemen of landed property in Roxburgh- 

 shire, and two-hundred of the yeomen of the country, with the Duke of 

 Buccleuch at the head of them, who had just finished their dinners. 

 But I was wrong about the toast — it was " the King," that called forth 

 this ebullition of good feeling; yet, strange to say, the health of all " the 

 kings of the earth," at popular meetings of this sort, would be drunk 

 in silence, when compared with the toast o^ fox-hunting, and in about 

 an hour afterwards, as we sate at our dinner, we heard the whole house 

 ring with another of these boisterous overflowings of the soul, 

 enough to shake it to its foundation. " Now they are drinking fox- 

 hunting," said I ; and, on Peter being dispatched to ascertain the fact, 

 we found it was even so. " The gentlemen have been drinking the 

 duke and his fox-hounds," was the result of Peter's mission. Then soon 

 after this the Welkin rang again — for neither roof, nor wall, could con- 

 fine the uproarious shouting of this jovial party at the moment. *' What 

 now, Peter?"— " Why," replied Peter, "Mr. Hay of Dunse-castle 

 has been giving 'em a speech, and he said something just at the fi-nish 

 of it that seemed to tickle a' the gentlemen vastly." Now here we have 

 the orator, inasmuch as what the death of the fox is to the chase — the 

 climax is to a speech, 



" Still rising to a climax, till the last 

 Surpassing all is not to be surpass'd." 



And no wonder that an old master of hounds, like Mr. Hay, should 

 leave something good for the finish. But all climaxes \von't bear the 

 types, and perhaps this will not. It was, I believe, a happy allusion to 

 some part of the dress of an Highland chief — a fair subject for a joke, 

 and I must leave my readers to guess the use that was made of it. 



Having learned from Peter tliat the duke and a few of his friends had 



