NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 425 



then, until the moon shall be in its last wane, and the sun shall cease to 

 shine on the world ! 



I have now got to the end of my Northern tour, having nothing left 

 but to acknowledge — which I do with sincerity and in truth — the at- 

 tention and kindness I received in the progress of it That an honour- 

 able distinction was shown me, it would have been impossible for me not 

 to have felt, and the recollection of it will cheer me in the evening of my 

 days. Still, as Swift observes, "it is the wise choice of the subject that 

 alone adorns and distinguishes the writer," and, like jEsop's fly, that sat 

 upon the axle of the chariot, it is to the popularity of my subjects — fox- 

 hunting especially — that I am indebted for any " Olympic dust," that I 

 may have been honoured with. Of one thing, however, I may be al- 

 lowed to feel proud. Johnson observes in the concluding passage of his 

 fourteenth Rambler, on the subject of writers or authors, that " a transi- 

 tion, from an author's book to his conversation, is, too often like an 

 entrance into a large city after a distant prospect. Remotely we see 

 nothing but spires of temples, and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the 

 residence of splendour, grandeur, and magnificence ; but when we have 

 passed the gates, we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced 

 with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstructions, and clouded 

 with smoke." The conduct of my Scotch friends, however, placed me 

 without the pale of this rather severe literary jurisdiction, by tb^ir 

 pressing invitations to me to return to their hospitable and jovial hearths. 

 Nevertheless, to insure the sympathy of his readers, is not the easiest of 

 tasks, let the subject be ever so inviting, or the writer ever so aufait 

 at them. It is said of Tibullus, for example, that he is the only poet 

 who has been able to arrive at fame, hy singing of his own pleasures ; 

 what then must be the chance of him who can only relate his ? All that 



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