NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 327 



saying anything, peculiar and natural to one man only, by which his 

 speech and actions are distinguishable from those of other men." Now I 

 appeal to all who know him,if such is not the Captain; and whoever has heard 

 him as I have heard him, in a strain of colloquial pleasantry, and observed 

 the quiet, grave, but cheerful, though guarded humour, that runs through 

 his conversation; the brevity of some of his remarks, and the artless 

 sincerity in which they are uttered, together with his deep and manly 

 voice — very unlike that of Velutti — must, I think, be of a similar 

 opinion with myself. What advantage he took of a good school educa- 

 tion, and a Cambridge matriculation, previously to his entering the army, I 

 am unable to say. He may, for aught I know to the contrary, be no 

 theoretical philosopher; he may have given Homer and mathematics to 

 to the winds, and have exchanged Herodotus the Historian for Herodicus 

 the Gymnast ; but in useful practical knowledge, I would back him against 

 most men; and, were I in a scrape on a point of moral conduct, there is 

 no one's opinion I would sooner be guided by than the Captain's. He is, 

 I believe, esteemed a good sportsman ; but never having seen him with 

 his own hounds, I must speak cautiously on this head ; for, when we 

 were in the habit of meeting in the field, some thirty years ago, f fear 

 the chief object of each was, who could ride fastest. I remember, 

 however, a singular circumstance relating to those by-gone days. The 

 Captain, in one very open season, in Oxfordshire, got eighty-four days 

 liunting on four hunters, one of which — a fine Scotch mare, I afterwards 

 saw in Germany, in the breeding stud of Baron Biel ! 



It may be supposed, that many good stories are abroad about the 

 Captain in his own country, and at which, when alluded to in his pre- 

 sence, no person laughs more heartily than he himself does. The Defi- 

 ance coach furnishes not a few, and amongst others the following. It is 



