216 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



tive to horses of more than a certain degree of substance — so much so 

 indeed, that an inexperienced eye might have mistaken this fine hunter 

 for a brood mare just brought from the paddock. That noted old sports- 

 man, Major Shairp of Houston, also went well on a weedy thorough-bred 

 mare. I saw him jump a very wide place, from a stand, in which he 

 showed how well he could handle them ; and he can go the pace too. 

 On perceiving he carried music about him, I asked him how happened it ? 

 *' Why," replied he; " this mare was sound when I turned her out, but 

 she came up a whistler." '' Major," said I ; " you and myself came into 

 the world about the same time ; have you not yet found out, what I found 

 out thirty-two years ago — to let well alone ; and that half the hunters in 

 Great Britain have been destroyed by being turned out to grass?" The 

 major said, as we often say on other occasions, " I wont do so again." 



There was something about this Major Shairp that took my fancy 

 much, independently of his fine horsemanship, and nerve, not very 

 common at his period of life ; and also of his reputation as a sportsman, 

 which stands high in Scotland. There appeared a straight- forward open- 

 heartedness about him, which, although extremely agreeable in all 

 descriptions of men, is, I must say, the general characteristic of the 

 sportsman. 



It is well said by Aristotle, " That he who is pleased with solitude, 

 must either be a beast, or a god !" As I hope I am not the one, and am 

 sure I am not the other, I have no predilection for an evening by myself, 

 even at Douglas's hotel, with only a newspaper to read. Such, however, 

 would have been the case on the evening of this day, had it not been for 

 a somewhat strange occurrence. It being dark when I arrived in Edin- 

 burgh, and having forgotten on which side of the square my hotel was 



