30 NTMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 



and this much I will venture to predict of him strengthened by 

 the opinion of others better able to judge of them than myself 

 that experience alone is wanting to put him upon a par with any 

 other person in his calling. There is a quickness of decision in 

 his movements in the field, which, tempered and chastened by 

 the before-mentioned excellent schoolmaster, is one of the chief 

 qualifications of the iox-hnnter, and without which, on certain 

 days, a good fox cannot be handsomely killed, let hounds be never 

 so good. His lordship's fine horsemanship likewise gives him 

 no small advantage here, as, barring accidents, his eye is never 

 off his leading hounds in their work, and he has a very good 

 man behind him, in his first whip, Joe Hogg, who appears as 

 keen for the sport as his master. By-the-by, an anecdote in 

 confirmation of this may not be amiss here. " Joe," said I to 

 him one day, " how did you feel when you were following my lord 

 over that bog ?" " Lord, sir," he replied, " why I expected to be 

 swallowed 'up alive every jump my horse took ; but what was to 

 be done ? the hounds were running right into him." The bog 

 was a mile and a half across, and just sufficiently frozen to admit 

 of their horses leaping from one tussuck of grass to another. 



I am travelling without my host ; I have said nothing of Lord 

 Elcho's hounds ; but the best comment upon their character will 

 be found in the sport they showed, which will be noticed in due 

 course. I have no list of them, none having been published 

 whilst I was at Dunse, neither are such things often published so 

 early in the season, for reasons that are obvious to all who fol- 

 low hounds. Their kennel is about a mile from the town, but 

 various occupations prevented my seeing it. I believe it is only 

 a temporary one, but from the condition and general soundness 

 of the hounds I should imagine it to be healthy, which is worth 

 all the ornaments of architecture put together. The stables, 

 made by Lord Elcho, are in the town of Dunse, and afford every 

 accommodation to a numerous stud of hunters the ten for his 

 own riding, clippers. His lordship's weight does not exceed 

 twelve stone with his saddle, which gives him great advantage; 

 and he is just now in the prime of life, which a man ought to be 

 to follow hounds, still more to hunt them four or five days a 

 week, in any country, and particularly in so deep and so strongly 

 fenced a one as Berwickshire is. 



Of Lord Saltoun I need say but little : 



"For high and deathless is the name 

 Oh Hougomont ! thy ruins claim ; 

 The sound of Cressey none shall own, 

 And Agincourt shall be unknown ; 

 And Blenheim be a nameless spot, 

 Long ere thy glories are forgot." 



