My itinerary is by no means clear to me; the names and distances I never clearly knew, and have now wholly forgotten; and this is the more to be regretted as there is no doubt that, in the course of those days, I must have passed and camped among sites which have been rendered illustrious by the pen of Walter Scott. Nay, more, I am of opinion that I was still more favoured by fortune, and have actually met and spoken with that inimitable author. Our encounter was of a tall, stoutish, elderly gentleman, a little grizzled, and of a rugged but cheerful and engaging countenance. He sat on a hill pony, wrapped in a plaid over his green coat, and was accompanied by a horsewoman, his daughter, a young lady of the most charming appearance. They overtook us on a stretch of heath, reined up as they came alongside, and accompanied us for perhaps a quarter of an hour before they galloped off again across the hillsides to our left. Great was my amazement to find the unconquerable Mr. Sim thaw immediately on the accost of this strange gentleman, who hailed him with a ready familiarity, proceeded at once to discuss with him the trade of droving and the prices of cattle, and did not disdain to take a pinch from the inevitable ram's horn. Presently I was aware that the stranger's eye was directed on myself; and there ensued a conversation, some of which I could not help overhearing at the time, and the rest have pieced together more or less plausibly from the report of Sim. "Surely that must be an _amateur drover_ ye have gotten there?" the gentleman seems to have asked. Sim replied I was a young gentleman that had a reason of his own to travel privately. "Well, well, ye must tell me nothing of that. I am in the law, you know, and _tace_ is the Latin for a candle," answered the gentleman. "But I hope it's nothing bad." Sim told him it was no more than debt. "O Lord, if that be all!" cried the gentleman; and turning to myself, "Well, sir," he added, "I understand you are taking a tramp through our forest here for the pleasure of the thing?" "Why, yes, sir," said I; "and I must say I am very well entertained."