30 The Post and the Paddock, 



of Yorkshire jockeys. We saw the old man in his 

 greatest glory in 1 841, when he succeeded Mr. Orde on 

 the table in the garden behind the Newcastle Grand 

 Stand, to return thanks for the toast of ^'Robert 

 Jo]inson and the old mare!' which the latter, though 

 he must then have been verging on seventy, proposed 

 with even more than his wonted fire, and wondrous 

 facility of language. Nature never fashioned a more 

 universal genius than the Laird of Nunnykirk. He 

 was not only a " full man " upon almost every sub- 

 ject, but when his tongue was once loosened with a 

 glass of wine, he fairly made the air crackle round 

 you with his sparkling eloquence and dexterous 

 arguments. The late Professor Buckland, who was 

 starring it at the British Association at Newcastle 

 in 1837, rued the day that ever he tried to run the rig 

 on him about geology, at a private dinner party, quite 

 as much as he did his encounter with Sir William Fol- 

 lett, at Drayton Manor, anent Robert Stephenson's 

 great theory of telling whether a line of railway could 

 pay, by putting your ear to the rails, and marking the 

 " wear and tear " vibrations. Of his dress and person 

 he was utterly careless. We have seen him travel 

 second class with his grooms to a race meeting, and 

 when one of the latter remarked that his hat was 

 shabby, he immediately rejoined that he'd change with 

 him, which he did on the spot, to the no small chagrin 

 of the lad, who got decidedly the worst of the bargain. 

 On another occasion, he was dining out before going 

 to a race ball, where he was to be the Steward ; and 

 on the host asking him, when they had concluded a 

 long argument about the wild imagery of Ossian, 

 if he wished to dress, he merely drew his fingers 

 through his hair, and went off in his plaid trousers 

 and blue coat, and gloveless, just as he had been 

 all day, and fairly danced the band and the ladies 

 weary. 



But we have wandered away from the jockeys. Will 



