360 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



This, indeed, is the peculiar feature in his horsemanship over a 

 country; it appears to matter little what sort of a horse he rides, provided 

 he has some " go" in him, for his hand is so good, his seat so strong, 

 his nerve so well-braced, and his temper so fine, that he generally keeps 

 them on their legs. But his feats ! Why I think the two following can 

 scarcely be beaten by any man. He rode a steeple-chase with three ribs 

 broken, almost at the start ; and getting a fall into a brook, when in his 

 usual place in a run, he suffered his horse to drag him eight yards under 

 water rather than lose his hold of him, by which he might have lost that 

 place. The motto of the family — very ancient in Scotland — is appro- 

 priate. " Who never backward looks, but onward goes." 



Archy's eldest brother, the laird of Brigton, dropped into his grave a 

 few months back. I have called him a sportsman, which he was, but in 

 my opinion, as to fox-hunting, only to a certain extent. In his love of it I 

 should say he was exceeded by no one; but he never appeared to me 

 to be quite satisfied in his own mind of what hounds were doing, neither 

 had he the fine ear of " Archy." As a horseman, I was told he was first- 

 rate ; indeed, when I was in the field with him, past his sixtieth year, 

 no man need, or did, ride harder — too hard, in fact, sometimes for the 

 hounds, which he was rather given to press. But let me remember- -' 

 " de mortuis." The laird of Brigton was an enthusiastic lover of fox- 

 hunting, a jovial companion, and game to the back bone. It was only 

 a short time before I became acquainted with him, that he had been 

 riding a steeple-chase amongst a lot of young fellows, two of them his 

 own nephews, in which he was second, over a very strongly-fenced 

 country. 



Almost the last conversation I had with the laird of Brigton, affords 



