326 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



and he works twenty horses on his farm, having imported a capital Suf- 

 folk Punch stallion for the improvement of the breed. At the meeting of 

 the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, of the year in which 

 I was in the country, he was awarded several premiums for superiority 

 of stock. 



The Captain is equally highly bred as are his cattle — in fact he claims 

 ancestral relationship to epic times, being clearly descended from the 

 noble race of Bruce, the hero of Scottish history. He is likewise 

 lineally descended from the celebrated Robert Barclay, author of the 

 *' Apology for the Quakers,"— he, the said Apologist, was the son of 

 David Barclay of Ury, the son of David Barclay of Mathers, the repre- 

 sentative of an old Scots family, of Norman origin, traceable, I believe, 

 through fifteen generations, to Theobald De Berkeley, who settled in 

 Scotland in the beginning of the twelfth century. The " Apology," an 

 elaborate work, I believe, written in Latin, and indicating no small por- 

 tion of both talent and learning, was dated thus :—" From Ury, the 

 ■place of my 'pilgrimage , in my native country of Scotland, 15t1i of 

 November, 1676." 



Thus I think I make it clear, that my friend the Captain is quite 

 thoroughbred, which to a great degree accounts for the wonderful feats 

 he has performed, certainly unequalled by any one man— in modern 

 times at least. 



As a conversationist, he exemplifies Congreve's definition of real native 

 humour to a greater degree than almost any other person I have hitherto 

 met with in life, and the definition of the dramatist, if my memory 

 does not fail mc, is this:—" a singular, unavoidable manner of doing or 



