of the Dumfries coach by
Biggar. One day he had changed horses, and was starting down a steep
hill, with an acute turn at the foot, when he found his wheelers, two
new horses, utterly ignorant of backing. They got furious, and we
outside got alarmed. Robbie made an attempt to pull up, and then with an
odd smile took his whip, gathered up his reins, and lashed the entire
four into a gallop. If we had not seen his face we would have thought
him a maniac; he kept them well together, and shot down like an arrow,
as far as we could see to certain destruction. Right in front at the
turn was a stout gate into a field, shut; he drove them straight at
that, and through we went, the gate broken into shivers, and we finding
ourselves safe, and the very horses enjoying the joke. I remember we
emptied our pockets into Robbie's hat, which he had taken off to wipe
his head. Now, in a few seconds all this must have passed through his
head--"that horse is not a wheeler, nor that one either; we'll come to
mischief; there's the gate; yes, I'll do it." And he did it; but then he
had to do it with his might; he had to make it impossible for his four
horses to do anything but toss the gate before them.

Here is another case. Dr. Reid of Peebles, long famous in the end of
last and beginning of this century, as the Doctor of Tweeddale; a man of
great force of character, and a true Philip, a lover of horses, saw one
Fair day a black horse, entire, thoroughbred. The groom asked a low
price, and would answer no questions. At the close of the fair the
doctor bought him, amid the derision of his friends. Next morning he
rode him up Tweed, came home after a long round, and had never been
better carried. This went on for some weeks; the fine creature was
without a fault. One Sunday morning, he was posting up by Neidpath at a
great pace, the country people trooping into the town to church.
Opposite the fine old castle, the thorough-bred stood stock still, and
it needed all the doctor's horsemanship to counteract the law of
projectiles; he did, and sat still, and not only gave no sign of urging
the horse, but rather intimated that it was his particular desire that
he should stop. He sat there a full hour, his friends making an
excellent joke of it, and he declining, of course, all interference. At
the end of the hour, the Black Duke, as he was called, turned one ear
forward, then another, looked aside, shook himself, and moved on, his
master intimating