58 NIMRO&S NORTHERN TOUR. 



boldly entered it as much as to say, " none dare follow me." 

 But neither hounds nor men were to be daunted. The pace 

 appeared to mend as the country became more severe the usual 

 effect of getting upon a better description of soil and several 

 of the horses that were not told out before began to cut it now. 

 Of falls there were many. Mr. M'Dougall Grant got three ; Sir 

 David Baird three, if not four ; and Lord Eglinton two, in one 

 of which his lordship was in an awkward situation, being unable 

 to extricate himself from his horse. A most amusing scene, 

 however, took place directly afterwards between Sir David Baird 

 and himself. They both came together up to a non-jumpable 

 wall. Sir David pulled down the top stones and told Lord 

 Eglinton it would do. Lord Eglinton rode at it but it was no 

 go. " I don't think it will do," said his lordship. " / give you 

 my word of honour" exclaimed Sir David (emphatically no 

 doubt), " it will do ;" and it did do, for his lordship got over it 

 at the second attempt, and Sir David followed him. Soon after 

 this indeed at the very last fence before the fox was killed, Sir 

 David got to appearance the most awful fall that, I think, my 

 eyes ever beheld, and how he escaped so well as he did was 

 somewhat like a miracle. I was following exactly in his wake, 

 and saw him ride in his usual masterly way at a wall about four 

 feet high, when both himself and his horse disappeared on the 

 landing side. " He is in a coal-pit or a stone-quarry," said I to 

 Lord Archibald Seymour, who was alongside me ; for although 

 we were coming down hill upon him at the time, and had the 

 advantage of higher ground, the last thing we saw belonging to 

 him was the tip of his horse's tail. Were I to live a thousand 

 years I should never lose the impression this unwelcome sight 

 made upon me, nor forget the pleasure it gave me to behold this 

 gallant horseman, as well as first-rate sportsman, crawling alive 

 up the bank, and pulling at his horse's head. " Are you hurt, 

 Sir David ?" said I. "I don't know," replied he, " but I fear my 

 horse is." No sooner was the horse on the bank, however, than 

 Sir David was at work again, and got in at the death. It ap- 

 peared that the first whipper-in, on seeing him coming down 

 upon this wall, holloaed to him to avoid it, which holloa I heard, 

 but was equally unconscious of its meaning, the whipper-in being 

 on the other side of a fence at the time. There was, it appeared, 

 a ravine-, or dry water-course, on the landing-side of this wall, a 

 boundary-fence in fact, which no horse, even when quite fresh, 

 could have cleared. 



The finish to this fine run was a glorious one. As the last 

 chance for his life, with the hounds close at his brush, this 

 capital fox got upon the roof of one of the low buildings of 



