S NORTHERN TOUR. 



On the morning of this day (Tuesday) I was thus addressed by 

 Lord Elcho, " To-morrow," said his Lordship, "we are going 

 into a good country, and we shall have a run; but it is a 

 strongly fenced one, and requires a hunter to get across it. i 

 -will send one to cover for you that will carry you comfortably 

 and well" the whole of which prediction was fulfilled to the very 

 letter. The morrow came and appeared like hunting. Some 

 rain had fallen on the preceding evening, the wind was in the 

 west, and on looking out of my window, I perceived that things 

 looked well above old Boreas asleep, and Phoebus where he 

 should always be on a hunting morning, not a beam of him to 

 be seen. 



As is generally the case, I was the first of the Dunse party 

 to make my appearance in the breakfast-room ; for having been 

 all my life an early riser at home, I cannot lie late in the morn- 

 ing when abroad ; but when I opened the door I found there had 

 been an arrival in the person of one whom I could not recollect 

 ever to have before seen. His figure was tall and thin, with a 

 piercing but very intellectual eye ; and, independently of his 

 feeing " stained with the variation of each soil/' which showed 

 that he had been at work whilst I was asleep, and must have 

 ridden a long distance that morning, there was a freshness of 

 complexion, and a wiryness of frame about him which at once 

 convinced me he was a sportsman. " Surely," said I to myself, 

 " this is Sir David Baird, of whom I have heard so much, but 

 Tvhom I have never seen." Such it proved to be ; and as, where 

 there is a sympathy of thought and sentiment, noble souls make 

 acquaintance at first sight, so do sportsmen, and we soon be- 

 came known to each other. He had ridden from Edinburgh 

 that morning, only forty-two miles, on the same hack ; and 

 having eight miles farther to go to the place where the hounds 

 meet, would just complete the half hundred. But what cares 

 a man in the prime of life, as Sir David is, for distance from 

 cover, in the morning, if he has but even a prospect of a good 

 zun ? 



By-the-way, I have a little anecdote that will not come amiss 

 liere on the subject of riding long distances on the road, for 

 which we know some persons have been remarkable, almost in- 

 deed beyond belief. Amongst those, few have exceeded the per- 

 formances of the Duke of Dorset, at one time his present 

 Majesty's Master of the Horse, and also filling the same to his 

 Grace, no doubt, congenial office to his late Majesty George 

 the Fourth. Dining one day at the Pavilion at Brighton, when 

 the late Duke of York was also a guest, the following short, but 

 pithy, sentences were exchanged between them. " A strong ride 



