NIM ROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



35 



During his last visit to Melton and I believe he spent the whole 

 of the season before the last in Leicestershire he tried I was 

 told an experiment in crossing the country, that his friends say 

 did not answer. This was making his horses leap into, and not 

 over the fences, with the idea of economizing their powers by 

 lessening their bodily exertion ; but I have reason to believe it 

 was the occasion of many falls. 



THE Earl of Eglinton, who stands next on mv list of the so- 

 journers at Dunse, rented for the season, the beautiful cottage at 

 the bead of the lake in Dunse-park, the residence of Mrs. Hay's 

 mother ; and had for his guest Lord Archibald Seymour, and 

 also occasionally Mr. Charles Lamb, his lordship's half-brother. 

 . Lord Eglinton's start in life (for he is only in his twenty-fourth 

 year) has been a good one. He has entered with spirit into the 

 sports and amusements of the country, which of itself makes a 

 young nobleman popular ; but when united, as in his case, with 

 amiable and unassuming manners, and an evident wish that 

 others should participate in the bountiful fortune he is heir to, 

 has rendered him one of the most popular young men in Scot- 

 land. I was told, before I came to his country, and by one who 

 is an excellent judge, that I should find him " a promising young 

 one, and very fond on't" (i.e., of fox-hunting), and such, truly, 

 did I find him, to the very extent and spirit of the letter. He 

 is a very hard rider (not so well mounted, by-the-by, as I would 

 be, were I Earl of Eglinton ; but Rome was not built in a day), 

 and very fond of racing, and of the practical part of it also, for 

 he has often ridden his own horses and won on them, when the 

 weight would allow ; but his lordship approaches to the " welter," 

 and an earl's table, with a French cook, is a bad school for 

 wasting. His friend, Lord Archibald Seymour, is equally fond of 

 hounds ; indeed, I should rather say more so than his noble 

 friend is, never missing a day with them, how great soever the 

 distance, or how rough soever the morning ; and, what is a sure 

 and infallible sign of it, on not the best of cattle. Likewise, as 

 birds of a feather flock together, there is in this young nobleman, 

 a similarly unassuming demeanour, which, after all, is the surest 

 sign of high birth. It is with men as with horses, ; tis the cock- 

 tail that throws up his head and kicks, but is generally found 

 wanting at the pinch. 



But amidst the glitter of coronets, I must not overlook 

 " Charley Lamb," as the half-brother to Lord Eglinton is called 

 by all his family and all his friends : and when I state that, what 

 the lexicographer would designate as " the termination fy" added 

 to the Christian name of a Scotchman, has the signification of 



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