NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR 359 



gentleman whom I had never before seen in the field, but for whose 

 character as a sportsman I had the highest respect, from the unanimous 

 testimony borne to it by the best judges in Scotland, touching the 

 essential properties of a sportsman. It is true, I had previously known 

 and made mention of this gentleman as a horseman and a steeple-chase 

 rider, but the degrees of excellence in one and in the other of these pur- 

 suits, are not to be named on the same day, neither are they indeed 

 at all a-kin to each other. I allude to Mr. Archibald Douglas, so much 

 better known as " Archy Douglas"* — brother to the late Mr. Douglas, of 

 Brigton, in Forfarshire, also a sportsman whose decease took place a 

 short time back — and who was brought to Melton Mowbray, by the late 

 Lord Kennedy, to ride Radical against Mr. Horatio Ross, on Clinker, 

 in the celebrated steeple-chase over Leicestershire, in 1829. Mr. 

 Archibald Douglas not having taken up his hunters this winter, I only 

 occasionally saw him in the field in Scotland, but I saw enough of him 

 to convince me, that all I heard of him as a sportsman was true. I put 

 him quite at the top of the tree, believing that he knows the science of 

 hunting as far as it can be known. 



As a horseman, riding from twelve to thirteen stone, I need say no 

 more of "Archy Douglas," than to mention a few extraordinary feats 

 performed by him; for from John o'Groats to the Land's End, his name 

 is up; and, as was said of Mr. Robert Canning, in the Epwell-hunt 

 poem, 



" Let him ride what he will, either hunter, or hack, 

 He is certain to be on good terms with the pack " 



* Perhaps I should call him " Captain Douglas," for I helieve he still holds that 

 rank in the army, in which he saw much service, distinguishing himself on several 

 oceasions. 



