NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 401 



Monday, March 2. — Weather horribly bad ; hunting out of the 

 question. The laird and myself u'ent to dine at Auchterader-house, 

 the seat of Captain Hunter, about eight miles distant, which had a 

 curious appearance, from the fact of the mansion having- been built, 

 and lately built, on an open and commanding spot, previously to 

 the formation of plantations, or other ornamental features, — there beino- 

 scarcely a tree about the place thicker than a man's wrist, or a bush 

 more than three feet high. Tlie inside of the house, however, was 

 wanting in nothing to make us comfortable ; and we cared nothing, as 

 far as ourselves were concerned, for the storm that was raging without. 



On our road to and from Auchterader, we crossed two rivers, about 

 each of which I have a word to say. We passed over that fine stream, 

 the Earn, rendered celebrated in ancient history for having so often been 

 dyed with good Scottish blood, in the wars of the Britons against 

 Agricola, and their struggle for independance against the Roman 

 arms ; and, in more modern legends, for having been the watery grave 

 of a clever whipper-in to the Fife hounds, who rashly attempted to cross 

 it on his horse, when much swollen with repeated rains. He had pre- 

 viously whipped-in to the Worcestershire hounds, in Mr. Parker's time, 

 and was a most expert swimmer. The other stream was the Po — not 

 the Po which Pliny speaks of, that king of rivers which bathes the 

 walls of a hundred cities ("^ Centum urbes rigat et placidis interluit 

 ufldis") but that which Michael Bruce calls 



'" the gulphy Po 



That through the quaking marsh and waving* reeds 

 Creeps slow and silent on." 



Now I had observed on our road to Captain Hunter's, that a new 

 temporary bridge had been thrown over the stream; and that the 



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