NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 277 



David. — ^' Wall — he wilded about the Bible a long time, but he 

 didna seem to come to na point at all at the last." 



Mr. Dalyell. — '* Yes, yes, David; I know what you mean; the 

 parson was not true to the line to-day — rather given to skirt." 



Nimrod. — " Well, David, give my best compliments to the Captain, 

 and tell him I shall give him a call soon." 



David, — " Gee him a caal ! — that will nae do for him ; ye maen 

 bede (bide) a nete wi' him." 



Nimrod. — *' No fear on that score, David ; the Captain and I have 

 been acquainted more than thirty years —ever since he first hunted in 

 Oxfordshire." 



Amusing as these comments of David's are, they would be much 

 more so if I could give them in the dialect in which he made them. 

 I was also much struck with the personal appearance of this good 

 servant — so different to that of the previous day, when dressed for a 

 coach box in a hard frost in December, He wore a full suit of black of 

 the very best texture ; and so cleanly and decent did he look, that until 

 he threw his tongue, he might very well have passed for a parson 

 himself. But who can afford to sport good broad cloth if David Roup 

 cannot? He is a single man; and I was given to understand, on good 

 authority, worth 20001. in houses and cash, to say nothing of the long 

 and short pocket on the Defiance coach, no trifle in the year we may be 

 certain ; for, as Jack Peer used to say of the passengers by the South- 

 ampton Telegraph in its best days, those of the Defiance generally wear 

 good collars to their coats. 



