Laidlaw, on a long-tailed, wiry Highlander, yclept Hoddin
Grey, which carried him nimbly and stoutly, although his
feet almost touched the ground as he sat, was the adjutant.
But the most picturesque figure was the illustrious inventor
of the safety-lamp. He had come for his favourite sport of
angling, and had been practising it successfully with Rose,
his travelling-companion, for two or three days preceding
this, but he had not prepared for coursing fields, and had
left Charlie Purdie's troop for Sir Walter's on a sudden
thought; and his fisherman's costume--a brown hat with
flexible brim, surrounded with line upon line, and
innumerable fly-hooks, jack-boots worthy of a Dutch
smuggler, and a fustian surtout dabbled with the blood of
salmon,--made a fine contrast with the smart jackets, white
cord breeches, and well-polished jockey-boots of the less
distinguished cavaliers about him. Dr. Wollaston was in
black, and, with his noble, serene dignity of countenance,
might have passed for a sporting archbishop.
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