318 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



made any remark on either of these pictures, which could not but have at- 

 tracted his notice, by reason of their vast dimensions— to say nothino- of 

 the striking likeness of his host, which must have faced him as he sat 

 at dinner;— he told me he had not alluded to them in any way, which I 

 must say, surprised me ; and I was naturally led to moralize upon the 

 fact. " Parva sunt haec," muttered I to myself, in the words of one 

 great man, "■ sed parva ista non contemnenda; majores nostri maximas 

 has res fecerunt." But how much less than little, thought I, must 

 such things appear in the eyes of another perhaps still greater man ! 



*' I suppose," said an intimate friend of Lord Kintore's to me, at 

 Edinburgh, " you are aware of the manner in which you will be received 

 on your arrival at Keith-hall, as all brother fox- hunters are. You will 

 be met by David at the steps, with a silver fox's head full of claret, by 

 way of a hearty welcome." " With all my heart," I replied, " I like a 

 hearty welcome ; it makes everything taste so sweet." '' But that is 

 not all," continued my informant ; " what are the odds against your 

 having Timotheus in the evening?" " Timotheus !" said I, "what 

 can Timotheus have to do with fox-hunters, unless it be in remembrance 

 of his musical pipe, or his poem in honour of Diana ?" " You will see," 

 resumed my monitor. 



I shall now show the extent of this prophecy. On the present occo 

 sion, the fox's head on the threshold was dispensed with, but there were 

 placed at the 6ar, two glasses of " something short," — Marischino, I be- 

 lieve — in which his lordship and myself pledged to each other, with a 

 good will ; and at six o'clock, we sat down, tete d. tcte^ to our dinner, 

 — my attention being divided between the good things on my plate, and 

 the meets of the three crack packs of Scotch hounds, on the walls. 



