NIM ROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 61 



several good horses. I do not consider him a very fast horse, 

 but he is a capital fencer and very stout." I can only add to this 

 good character of my nag, that I would not desire to ride a 

 pleasanter or a safer hunter ; and when carrying a man on the 

 wrong side of fifty, the latter qualification is no small recommen- 

 dation to him. 



Luckily for mankind there is an evening as well as a morning 

 to a November day, and that although the sun has run his course 

 by five o'clock p.m., man has not run his until another is near at 

 hand. A very agreeable party at the Cottage, the pleasure of 

 which was much heightened by some excellent Irish anecdotes 

 given by Mr. Maxwell in a manner peculiar to himself, and 

 with excellent effect, concluded this to me very remarkable 

 day. 



The following day Wednesday, 19 Lord Elcho's fixture was 

 Paxton-house, the seat of Torman Hume, Esq., who entertained 

 a large party of sportsmen at dinner on the preceding day, and 

 from whom I had received a po'lite invitation to breakfast on the 

 Wednesday. Paxton is one of the finest houses in Berwickshire, 

 containing a splendid collection of paintings ; it is beautifully 

 situated on the banks of the Tweed, and in the neighbourhood 

 of a handsome suspension bridge, which, together with a beauti- 

 ful reach in the river, is visible from the windows of the mansion. 

 The road from Berwick to Kelso passes over this bridge, which 

 was designed and executed by Captain Brown, R.N., and is said 

 to be the finest bridge of this description as yet erected in the 

 North, being wide enough for two carriages to travel abreast and 

 with plenty of room for foot passengers. 



There was something bordering upon phenomenon in the state 

 of the atmosphere on this morning, it being nearly as hot as in 

 the dog days. At all events, I never witnessed anything like it 

 before as regarded its effects on horses particularly on those in 

 the plough teams, which smoked, when they came to turn upon 

 the headlands, like coach horses at the end of their stage, in a 

 frost. The heat was also much felt by the gentlemen who rode 

 fast to cover ; and Lord Eglinton declared he had more taken 

 out of him in riding Paul Pry to Paxton, only about ten miles, 

 than by the fine run of the preceding day. Paul was nearly the 

 best cocktail racer in the North, and won several times, jockied 

 by his lordship. He is, however, one of the most violent horses 

 I ever saw. 



Fortunately for ourselves, but more so for our horses, we had 

 not much to do on this extraordinary day. We did not find at 

 Paxton, so trotted away to Broom-dykes in hopes of meeting 

 with the fox which had given us the good hour's sport of which 



