42 NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 



Although I have said that Lady Kirk was the fixture for the 

 day, I must stop short in my course before I arrive there. Rather 

 a large assemblage of sportsmen accompanied the hounds from 

 Dunse, and Lady Kirk, in itself, being a very uncertain place of 

 showing sport, it was proposed to Lord Elcho that a small spiny, 

 as it is called in Leicestershire, by the side of the road, and five 

 miles short of the place appointed, should.be drawn, en passant. 

 His lordship for this once consented, and mark the result. A 

 Lady Kirk fox jumped up before the hounds, in the twinkling of 

 an eye, putting his head as straight for home as the most 

 hungry pigeon could fly ; and a most severe burst, over a most 

 severe country, was the consequence. Now who saw the finish ? 

 I can only say I myself did not ; nor indeed could I learn who 

 did. I was well with them for the first ten minutes, when we 

 came to some rails and a brook, which stopped the whole field. 

 " Don't go there ;" cried Lord Elcho to me, " you'll be smoth- 

 ered" (it was a bog) ; "here's a pass to the left." So by some go- 

 ing to the left, and some to the right where there was also a 

 pass whilst the hounds went straight, no small advantage was 

 gained by them, not only over the horses but also over their fox, 

 and the pace appeared to bid defiance to catching them. At all 

 events, my chance was soon out. About a mile farther on, we 

 came to a fence of this description, but which I found to be by 

 no means an unusual one in Scotland : there was a ditch on the 

 rising side, as also on the Ian ding side, which was a good stoned 

 road. But to enable a horse to leap the second ditch, he had to 

 land himself upon a stone wall, from whence he was to receive 

 the fulcrum. " Now for a fractured skull or a broken thigh, five 

 hundred miles from home," said I to myself, as I perceived the 

 horse that went before me put his hinder foot on a sort of step- 

 ping stone from whence his fulcrum was derived ; " by heavens 

 I'll look for a better place." In short, I funked it. Keepsake* 

 was very indignant at my not letting him go ; but, as Jack said 

 at the Opera, " Remember I'm just come from France," said I to 

 him, as I put him at another place, which presented a broader 

 footing. 



Of course I saw no more of the hounds till I found them in the 

 park at Lady Kirk, where, by one of those untoward events from 

 which the chase of wild animals never can be free, " the finish " 

 to this beautiful burst of five miles in twenty-two minutes was 

 wanting. The hunted fox was seen, dead beat, before the pack, 

 when a fresh one jumped up in view ; and before the hounds 

 could be stopped another fox was on foot. Mr. M'Kenzie Grieve 



* The name of the horse. 



