350 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



large property — masters of fox-hounds especially — who spend their in- 

 comes at home, and thus add to the comforts and amusements of the 

 people. 1 am not, however, alluding to the extreme neatness and conve- 

 niences of the several farm-houses or onsteads, as they are called in Scot- 

 land, which I saw on the Dalkeith estate. There appeared to have heen 

 nothing left undone to render the tenant comfortable, or to enable him 

 to do justice to the land, which was in the highest state of cultivation, 

 and of excellent quality in itself. 



I have no chronological account of all my proceedings whilst at Edin- 

 burgh, but 1 occasionally came in contact with nearly all descriptions of 

 persons, — even the " eruditi, togati homines," (men of the gown,) as 

 will presently appear. I also had a taste of the military, in an excel- 

 lent dinner and agreeable evening at the barracks with the Greys. The 

 pleasure of it, however, was somewhat damped by the absence of that 

 good sportsman and old acquaintance, Major Wyndham, who is married, 

 and therefore not often to be ^ound at the mess ; but on this day a par- 

 ticular engagement occupied him. I met a party of my sporting friends 

 another day at Dirminston-house, one of the seats of the Marquis of 

 Lothian, but rented by Mr. Adam Hay, where we dined in a fine old 

 baronial-looking hall, reminding one of olden times. I likewise dined 

 with Mr. Earle, in Gloucester-place, where we talked over what we had 

 seen in Fife, and drank a bumper to " Walker, and the noble science ;" 

 also with Mr. Henry Stewart, of St. Fort-house, near Dundee, where 

 I met Col. Fotheringham, at whose house Mr. Musters was on a visit, 

 when he viewed away the fox, whilst fishing in the Tweed, and sur- 

 prised the field by his holloa. 



Colonel Fotheringham mentioned a fact worth relating to persons 



