safe as any place
in the kingdom.

NOTE 3, p. 213

The author may here remark that the character of Dandie Dinmont was drawn
from no individual. A dozen, at least, of stout Liddesdale yeomen with
whom he has been acquainted, and whose hospitality he has shared in his
rambles through that wild country, at a time when it was totally
inaccessible save in the manner described in the text, might lay claim to
be the prototype of the rough, but faithful, hospitable, and generous
farmer. But one circumstance occasioned the name to be fixed upon a most
respectable individual of this class, now no more. Mr. James Davidson of
Hindlee, a tenant of Lord Douglas, besides the points of blunt honesty,
personal strength, and hardihood designed to be expressed in the
character of Dandie Dinmont, had the humour of naming a celebrated race
of terriers which he possessed by the generic names of Mustard and Pepper
(according as their colour was yellow or greyish-black), without any
other individual distinction except as according to the nomenclature in
the text. Mr. Davidson resided at Hindlee, a wild farm on the very edge
of the Teviotdale mountains, and bordering close on Liddesdale, where the
rivers and brooks divide as they take their course to the Eastern and
Western seas. His passion for the chase in all its forms, but especially
for fox-hunting, as followed in the fashion described in chapter xxv, in
conducting which he was skilful beyond most men in the South Highlands,
was the distinguishing point in his character.

When the tale on which these comments are written became rather popular,
the name of Dandie Dinmont was generally given to him, which Mr. Davidson
received with great good-humour, only saying, while he distinguished the
author by the name applied to him in the country, where his own is so
common--'that the Sheriff had not written about him mair than about other
folk, but only about his dogs.' An English lady of high rank and fashion,
being desirous to possess a brace of the celebrated Mustard and Pepper
terriers, expressed her wishes in a letter which was literally addressed
to Dandie Dinmont, under which very general direction it reached Mr.
Davidson, who was justly proud of the application, and failed not to
comply with a request which did him and his favourite attendants so much
honour.

I trust I shall not be considered as offending the memory of a kind and
worthy man, if I mention a little trait of charac