NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 377 



lordship, when at Keith-hall. He told me the meat was of the finest 

 colour and quality, beautifully " marbled" as the term is ; also, that the 

 roasting parts fetched two shillings per pound, and the boiling ones 

 one shilling ; that the fat on the sirloins was six inches in depth, and 

 on the rumps nine, and the total dead weight — including oflfal — was, 

 2,8771bs. ! So much for Aberdeenshire, its good farming, and its beef. 

 Then the mention of Lord Kintore's name started Mr. Williamson on 

 another tack. Speaking of him as keeping his fox-hounds, and spending 

 almost all his income in the county whence it is derived, he finished his 

 remarks with the following striking sentence : *' These are the men," said 

 he, " who, if they ask anything of their country must have it.'' The name 

 of another nobleman was introduced — the late Lord Kennedy, who was a 

 near neighbour of the Captain's, and with whom I had the honour of a 

 slight acquaintance myself. To attempt to produce a rival to the Captain 

 in walking matches would be absurd — no man but himself, having, I 

 believe, yet walked a hundred and ten miles in nineteen hours and a 

 half; but the following account of a match undertaken and performed by 

 Lord Kennedy, may be relied upon, as I had it from an eye-witness: — 

 *' A match was made for 5000/. asidej at Black-hall, Aberdeenshire, the 

 seat of Mr. Farquharson, at eight d^'dock in the evening, after dinner, 

 between Lord Kennedy and Colonel, now Sir Leith, Hay, to go on foot 

 to Inverness. The morning had been employed in riding to a snipe-bog, 

 sixteen miles distant, where three guns bagged fifty-two couples of snipes, 

 and eighteen of wild ducks. Thei/ sh,rted immediately. Kennedy 

 went across the hills, and reached Inverness in thirty hours. Hay fol- 

 lowed the high road and arrived about four hours later than his opponent : 

 but Kennedy having leaned on a man'§ arm in descending a hill, a doubt 

 was raised, whether he had not thus lost the match, and a compromise 

 was accepted by him of 500/.' The distance by the road is one hundred 



3 c 



