182 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



himself personally on a par with the smallest farmer at the dinner, was, 

 I will answer for it, not void of effect, although perhaps unintentional 

 on the duke's part; and the riding " comfortably home with the miller," 

 like Mr. Hay's fi-nish to his speech, was the cHmax. 



It amused me to hear that the duke introduced into his speech, not 

 only the great advantages farmers derive from fox-hunting, but as much 

 as told them, that their corn and grass would be all the better for being 

 ridden over. If his Grace's words were to be taken literally, perhaps 

 they would not always be borne out by experience ; but with reference 

 to consequences they v*'ere strictly true. 



The next morning, Saturday 29th, the punctuality of Peter was once 

 more to be put to the test. Having again sixteen miles to go to cover, 

 our first breakfast was to be upon the table exactly at seven o'clock ; and 

 at half past seven Mr. Callander and myself were on our hacks — Mr. C. 

 on a trotter for which he had given two hundred guineas, and I suppose 

 the fastest in Scotland, bred by Mr. Theobald, of Stock well, and myself 

 on one of King's " hunters," which was certainly an excellent hack — • 

 on our road to a second breakfast at Spottiswoode, sixteen miles from 

 Kelso, a mansion-house not then quite completed, built on a domain 

 manufactured out of a black turbary bog ; and were any thing wanted to 

 display the unrivalled energy of the British mind, the reclaiming, by 

 draining, the planting, improving, and building a mansion upon this 

 black bog w^ould do the business. 



After a good second breakfast at this hospitable mansion, the duke's 

 hounds made their appearance, that place being the fixture for the day. 

 Now it is not every man who is considered fit to be trusted on the back 



