NIMRO&S NORTHERN TOUR. 3 



any wise controlled by circumstances. His lordship informed 

 me that he was about to set out for the South on a certain day . 

 that he should visit the kennels of certain masters of fox- 

 hounds in various parts of England, naming them all, as also the 

 exact time of doing so ; that he should be for two days in 

 London, at home again on the sixteenth day, winch he was, 

 'after keeping every one of his appointments ! But punctuality 

 imd fox-hunting go hand-in-hand ; and it might perhaps create 

 the surprise of the trader were he to know with' what scrupulous 

 exactness the management of a kennel of fox-hounds is conducted. 



.hi his lordship's arrival at home his head whipper-in also went 

 pon furlough, to visit his friends in the New Forest, fourteen 

 Jays being allotted to him for his trip ; and, of course, after the 

 example of his noble master and his huntsman, he was punctual 

 to his time to return. 



But it is now time that I should think of moving, and I must 

 take a peep into my almanack to assist my memory on that 

 point. But in the autumn of the year, no man can say exactly 

 when he can quit Calais for England, as, barring the samiel of 

 the desert, or the sirocco, we have every description of climate 

 here, and often on the same day. A most desperate equinoctial 

 gale, however, causing a great loss of life on this coast, prevented 

 my embarking by a week so soon as I intended ; and even the 

 stupendous power of steam could scarcely face it when I did. 

 Nevertheless, after a touch-and-go on the bar, which produced 



omething like a view-holloa from the ladies, and the very 

 .iisagreeable view of a steamer in great danger, on the shore, I 

 arrived at Dover on the 3oth of October, somewhat afflicted with 

 the maladie de mer, a further description of which may very 

 readily be dispensed with. 



A good fire and some comfortable refreshment at the London 

 Hotel soon made " all right," as we say on the road, and as the 

 guests in the coffee-room consisted of only two Irish gentlemen 

 and myself, we very soon after the fashion of the continent, 

 "joined cry," as we say in the field. One of them it appeared 

 resided in the same county (Louth) in which the late Sir Harry 

 Goodricke's property was situated, and he mentioned several 

 interesting circumstances relating to that very celebrated English 

 sportsman, some of which set forth, in a strong light, not only 

 the loss that country sustained by his death, in the cessation of 

 the improvements he was making on his estate, but also the 

 causa causce of half the misery of Ireland in the absence of their 

 nobility and gentry. One anecdote of my deceased friend is 

 characteristic of the man, although not of the country which 

 gave birth to it, at the same time that, when associated with the 



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