346 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



sanctum. " Many thanks for the handsome present of game you sent 

 me from Keith-hall," said the Professor to me. " You must thank Lord 

 Kintore," was my reply, " for to him are you indebted for it; for taking 

 me into his game larder, previously to my departure, he told me to select 

 what pheasants amd hares I might like to send to my friends at Edinburgh 



mentioning yourself as one. But," continued I, "one of my friends 



to whom I sent a similar basket to your own, was very near coming short 

 of it; for having been taken, by mistake, to a person of the same name, 

 residing in the same street, one half of it had found its way to the spit 

 before the error was detected." " Oh," replied the Professor, ''that's 

 an old Scotch trick. If there are two Johnny Campbells, for example, 

 in the same street, in this town, and a basket of game should be taken 

 to the wrong Johnny Campbell, the right Johnny Campbell would stand 

 a poor chance of seeing a feather of it — especially if the carriage of 

 it were paid.'* 



Even Dr. Johnson allowed hospitality to the Scotch, and surely I 

 found enough of it, for I verily believe I might have remained there 

 amongst my friends till this time, and all Scot free. Having received a 

 sort of carte blanche invitation to Preston-hall, the seat of Mr. Burn 

 Callander, I hired my landlord's gig, and drove there on Sunday, and 

 returned to Edinburgh on the following Tuesday. I was anxious to see 

 the inside of this fine house — I had seen the outside of it before, during 

 my visit to Captain Keith, and I found it all that it had been repre- 

 sented to me to be — one of the most complete mansions in Scotland. 

 But the gardens surpassed, in size and in forcing houses, those which I 

 had before seen attached to the domain of a private gentleman in any 

 country I have visited. I also witnessed something here, as well as at 



