Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/119

Rh two before my arrival at Langholm, left that place in his way to Dalkeith, and had taken from the inn all the horses, except one wretched pair. The landlady said, she did not like the fashion of the servant's going behind the carriage;—would I not have a saddle-horse for him?—No. For I had determined a negative to that point on every occasion. Had the good woman been in possession of another pair of horses at home, she, I plainly perceived would not have taken me to Hawick, without four; luckily for me she had them not, and the two poor miserable beasts were brought out to be put to the chaise. As the inn had nothing inviting to me to stay there, I hastened into the carriage, it still raining prodigiously hard. As soon as I was seated, I perceived a fine honest-faced old Scot, twisting a cord from one fore-spring to the other.—"Friend, what are you doing?"—"Making a seat, my Lady; the one horse being hardly able to stand, for rheumatism and broken knees; and the other will not suffer me to ride him, being woefully galled on the back."—"Well, but surely such poor creatures will never carry us to Hawick?"—"Never you heed, my Lady, have patience, and they will carry