NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 399 



so much to the test, at all periods of the year*, as what are called the 

 Brighton-downs, and those between Brighton and Lewes. Arber is 

 qualified to speak to this point, for it is well known that he rode nothing 

 which was not thorough-bred with Mr. Wyndham's pack. He, how- 

 ever, expressed himself very well satisfied with the cattle Abercairney 

 mounted him upon, and told me he considered one of his horses the best 

 hunter he had ever crossed. 



After Saturday's hunting, our party at dinner was augmented by the 

 presence of some of the laird's friends and neighbours, and amongst 

 them Mr. Thompson, factor to the Earl of Strathearn— a jolly good 

 fellow, who sang us two or three capital songs, and added much to the 

 conviviality of the evening. But I was told the next day, that I had 

 thrown a gloom over his countenance by a remark I chanced to make in his 

 hearing. I had expressed a fear of quitting Scotland, without witnessing 

 a game peculiar to it, called " curling,'' adding, — in allusion to the 

 state of the weather, which had hitherto prevented me — that the pre- 

 ceding Sunday would have done well for it. Now having lived six 

 years in France, it is not to be wondered at, that I should have thought 

 at the moment that such games were played on Sundays in all other 

 countries ; but I was told that even the gong was not allowed to be 

 sounded for dinner, at one gentleman's house, in the vale of Strathearn, 

 on this particular day. Now, Sir Andrew Agnew himself cannot 

 beat this; but I could not help asking myself the following simple 

 question ; namely, — '' which of the two following charges should I most 

 fear being laid to my account, — the witnessing a curling match on a 



* I qualify this assertion, "at all periods of the year," by observing that 

 there are parts of Warwickshire and Worcestershire, that will stop the best hunters 

 in England in fifteen minutes., after a long frost. 



