342 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



said he, '' we have plenty to do, we will go and see my friend, Piper, the 

 great coach proprietor, and all his swell drags ; and when we have done 

 with them, we shall have ' swells' of another sort to see — those walk- 

 ing Prince's-street, the Bond-street of this place, amongst whom no 

 doubt you will see some of your friends. Then we must go to Black- 

 wood's, and hear the news there, where you will be sure to find the Pro- 

 fessor (Wilson) about an hour before his dinner, and some others of 

 your literary acquaintance." 



Our visit to friend Piper was most satisfactory, and in more ways 

 than one, for, after seeing his drags, and hearing the details of his 

 immense coaching establishment — he horses seven mails, and ten coaches 

 — it ended in our partaking of a most excellent dinner, for which we 

 did not **pay the piper" — in other words, he asked us to dine with him, 

 when independently of "most excellent" fare, and a hearty welcome, 

 we met a very agreeable party of his friends. And in defiance of the 

 maxim of the old ones, that the table — the sacred altar of friendship 

 and hospitality, (/)iXtwj^.9-£lov Giojuby KaL^evicjVy as Plutarch calls it— should 

 be held sacred, and that it is a crime to dishonour it by improper beha- 

 viour when at it, or, by a too minute recapitulation of some matters 

 relating to it when we have left it, I cannot persuade myself to forego 

 the recital of one capital anecdote, given to us over Mr. Piper's maho- 

 gany, by Mr. Allan, brother to the very celebrated historical painter, of 

 that name, a name which has reflected honour upon Scotland. The story 

 was this, but it will lose more than half its richness, from the absence of 

 the provincial dialect, as well as the full vein of humour in which it flowed 

 from his lips, which it is not in the power of the pen to supply : one 

 of these new-fashioned ranting preachers of the present day, with whom 

 declamation passes for eloquence, and (too often I fear) cant for reli- 



