NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 39I 



Whyte Melville, returned to hunt with the Fife ; and on Friday 27th., 

 I went to Perth, on my road to Abercairney, the fine seat of the Hio-h- 

 land cliief of that name. 



There were two circumstances connected with my visits to Burnside 

 that gave me cause for regret. One, that, in satisfaction as it were of 

 all the kindness I experienced there, I had it not in my power to chro- 

 nicle a series of good sport with Mr. Dalyell's hounds ; the other, that 

 circumstances prevented my seeing the castle of Glammis, which (to use 

 the language of Sir Walter Scott*, '' previously to the atrocity which 

 under pretence of improvement, deprived that lordly place of its appro- 

 priate accompaniments, 



' Leaving an ancient dome and towers like these, 

 Beggar'd and outraged.') 



was the noblest specimen of the real feudal castle, entire and perfect, 

 that had as yet come under his inspection," — to say nothing of its inti- 

 mate association with the bloody deeds of its once royal owner, as 

 recorded by our immortal Shakspeare. Still, of all the curiosities to 

 be seen there, the one which would have most interested me, would, I 

 think, have been the cap and bells of the professed jester which this 

 family, it appears, was one of the last to keep. This race of beings is 

 extinct, and no wonder, for few persons are wise enough to play the 

 fool well; and I cannot say but I regret that they are extinct. They 

 must have been an inexhaustible fund of entertainment, independently 

 of their having been the only medium through which persons of a certain 

 rank could ever hear the truth. I had a slight acquaintance with the 

 late Lord Glammis and saw him a short time before his death, which 



* See Lockbart's Life of Scott, for Sir Walter's description of this notable place. 



