NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 57 



it," said I to Mr. Campbell, of Saddell, as he was gently passing 

 a rotten wooden bridge over the boundary drain of this morass, 

 which tottered under the weight of himself and his horse almost 

 to its fall ; " what a tremendous pace they are going ! J; But 

 over what kind of ground were they going ? Over fine, sound 

 turf, which scarcely would bury a horse's shoes ? No but over a 

 large rough moor, very sticky in some places, and very soft in 

 others, and greatly in favour of the hounds over the Ijorses, in 

 their work. " By heavens but there will be a tale to be told to-day," 

 said I to myself, as I leaned towards Frank Collison, who was 

 stealing along upon a thorough-bred one, rather sinking the wind 

 at the time, and apparently in a good line. " Surely," said I to 

 him when I got alongside him, " Mr. Campbell can never hold 

 on at that pace, although he is upon Elcho Castle !" But there 

 were others at that time going with the hounds of whom a similar 

 prediction might have been made. Amongst them was Mr. 

 M'Dougall Grant upon one of Mr. King's horses, going quite the 

 ultra pace. He will go as long as he can go, thought I to my- 

 self, but Mr. King's condition will not stand that pace in Novem- 

 ber. And he did go as long as he could go ; and after the third 

 fall, stood still. Now as the country we went over has been 

 accurately stated in the Kelso Mail, by one who must have had 

 a proper knowledge of it, whereas I had none, it would be use- 

 less for me to speak of it further than to state, that, at March- 

 mont, which was about the fourth point our fox made, and up 

 to which place the pace had been desperately severe, there was 

 a slight check, and the first. The consequence of this was as I 

 had predicted ; the field became very select ; but having been 

 admirably piloted by Frank Collison, I was just in time here to 

 see the hounds cross a road in the park under the nose of the 

 horse of the duke's head groom, who had been going the same 

 line with myself.* 



But here the scene changed. Previously to the check at 

 Marchmont the country had been in great part open at least 

 there had not been much fencing, although it had been parti- 

 cularly severe for the horses, and they had been going upwards 

 of half an hour at the very top of their pace ! The next point 

 was Fogo Muir, which we skirted, but where the hounds were 

 put together in so masterly a way by Williamson, that, barring 

 an open earth, the game was won. Nevertheless, severe as had 

 been the pace, and severe as had been the country, the tale of 

 tales was yet to be told. The deep the strongly enclosed vale 

 of Merse was below us, and this resolute and finely-winded fox 

 * His grace's head groom, Mathew, is almost always out on one of 

 the duke's horses, and an excellent horseman he is. 



