NIMRO&S NORTHERN TOUR. 49 



doing so, for they went straight up the Cheviot hills, and were 

 never seen again till the next morning, when they returned to 

 their breakfast at the kennel. The other fox ran short and was 

 lost, and thus ended my first day with the Galewood pack. 



" It is good," said a learned Scotchman, " to admire great hills, 

 "but to live in plains ;" and although I believe the celebrated 

 writer I am quoting alluded to the perilous distinctions of political 

 faction, his words would have equally applied to fox-hunting. As 

 well might we expect the stream to rise against its fountain as 

 10 expect a horse to carry a man up the Cheviot hills with 

 hounds on a scent, neither is it reasonable to call upon him to 

 do so ; and were I to steal a flourish to adorn my pen, I should 

 compare the attempt to that of Hannibal to pass the Alps. 

 Nevertheless, although my horse showed a decided dislike to it, 

 for he as much as said, " I will have no more of it," I was pleased 

 to tread such classic ground as " Flodden's ill-fated field," which 

 lies at the foot of the Cheviot hills. 



On my return to Dunse the same night, I found Lord Elcho 

 had had a fine day's sport. He killed his fox in the morning ; 

 had a hunting run from Eddington-hill to the Lee rocks with 

 liis second fox, at noon ; and finding another at a quarter before 

 four o'clock in the evening, ran him for an hour at the very best 

 pace, and whipped off, at dark, on Eddington-hill. 



Friday, 14. A dies non in the hunting way. Amused myself 

 by looking over the studs in Dunse, amongst which was that of 

 Sir David Kinloch,* who arrived the same evening. Sir David 

 the wrong side of fourteen stone in his saddle is a very hard 

 rider, and, although debarred the enlivening influence of the 

 grape, owing to having fractured his skull by a fall, is a very 

 cheerful companion at any hour of the day or night. I was 

 much pleased to make the acquaintance of this gentleman, and 

 for the following reasons : He is not only passionately fond of 

 hunting, and also a great agriculturist, but there formerly ex- 

 isted a great intimacy between my family and an aunt of the 

 Baronet's, the lady of the late Sir Foster Cunliffe, Bart, of Acton- 



Eark, near Wrexham, who was the first specimen of a Scottish 

 idy that came under my observation for nearly the first twenty 

 years of my life. She is also now in her grave, and therefore 

 beyond the reach of either censure or praise from censure, I 

 believe, few were more free but all who had the pleasure of her 

 acquaintance will join me in saying of her, that she was one of 

 the finest specimens both in person and in mind of a Scottish 



* Sir David resides at Gilmerton, near Haddington, about twenty- 

 five miles from Edinburgh; 



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