than
the retardation of his journey.
    The first of these stops was occasioned by the breaking of a spring, which
half an hour's labour hardly repaired. To the second, the Antiquary was himself
accessory, if not the principal cause of it; for, observing that one of the
horses had cast a fore-foot shoe, he apprized the coachman of this important
deficiency. »It's Jamie Martingale that furnishes the naigs on contract, and
uphauds them,« answered John, »and I am not entitled to make any stop, or to
suffer prejudice by the like of these accidents.«
    »And when you go to - I mean to the place you deserve to go to, you
scoundrel, - who do you think will uphold you on contract? If you don't stop
directly and carry the poor brute to the next smithy, I'll have you punished, if
there's a justice of peace in Mid-Lothian;« and, opening the coach-door, out he
jumped, while the coachman obeyed his orders, muttering, that »if the gentlemen
lost the tide now, they could not say but it was their ain fault, since he was
willing to get on.«
    I like so little to analyze the complication of the causes which influence
actions, that I will not venture to ascertain whether our Antiquary's humanity
to the poor horse was not in some degree aided by his desire of showing his
companion a Pict's camp, or Round-about, a subject which he had been elaborately
discussing, and of which a specimen, »very curious and perfect indeed,« happened
to exist about a hundred yards distant from the spot where this interruption
took place. But were I compelled to decompose the motives of my worthy friend
(for such was the gentleman in the sober suit, with powdered wig and slouched
hat), I should say, that, although he certainly would not in any case have
suffered the coachman to proceed while the horse was unfit for service, and
likely to suffer by being urged forward, yet the man of whipcord escaped some
severe abuse and reproach by the agreeable mode which the traveller found out to
pass the interval of delay.
    So much time was consumed by these interruptions of their journey, that when
they descended the hill above the Hawes (for so the inn on the southern side of
the Queensferry is denominated), the experienced eye of the Antiquary at once
discerned, from the extent of wet sand, and the number of black stones and
rocks, covered with sea-weed, which