NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. Si 



on nature, and a substitute for real condition, adopted, ex- 

 cept in cases of extreme necessity, of which there were only 

 two in a stud of this magnitude. These were in horses 

 very irritable when dressed, which, in my opinion, is the best 

 reason for having recourse to the operation of clipping, inasmuch 

 as after a good run in a dirty country, such horses may be said 

 to be doing nearly a second day's work after they return to their 

 stalls. In the account I have written the first part of which 

 has been published in the New Sporting Magazine of all the 

 hunters I have myself possessed, will be found the mention of 

 one which could not be dressed at all on the evening of the day 

 he had been ridden with hounds, and consequently had clipping 

 then been in fashion, he would without doubt have been bene- 

 fited by it. 



The first stable I walked through was that which contained the 

 servants' horses, sixteen in number, amongst which I espied 

 " the old Black Horse, 7 ' as he is called, that carried Williamson 

 so splendidly throughout the celebrated fifty-five minutes from 

 East Gordon-gorse, of which I have already given an account. 

 He is a low, narrow, but long:, deep, and wiry-looking animal, 

 showing a deal of blood, although of rather mean appearance ; 

 and, as I was told, was purchased, like many of Williamson's 

 horses, for a very inconsiderable sum. He appeared, however, 

 quite ready for another day, and, like the rest of the stud, in very 

 excellent condition. To enumerate them all would by no means 

 be desirable, were it in my po\ver to do so ; but I am able to 

 give, in a few words, the general character of the servants' horses 

 in the Duke of Buccleuch's hunting establishment, all of which 

 are purchased by Williamson himself lately, I understood, by 

 his Grace's orders, at something beyond Williamson's estimate 

 of a Scotch hunter's value. They are for the most part light 

 horses, not equal, on the average, to more than from eleven to 

 twelve stone weight, but showing a great deal of high breeding, 

 without which, indeed, they would be often found wanting in 

 parts of the duke's country particularly over the Cheviot hills. 



" But where," said I to Williamson, " is your famous old white 

 horse, of whom I have heard so much ? ;> " Gone earth-stopping 

 with Hugh ; I don't ride him till the ground gets quite soft," was 

 the reply. " You are right," resumed 1 ; " and if sportsmen in ge- 

 neral were not to ride horses of a certain age either early in the 

 autumn, or far on in the spring, they would find a very large bal- 

 ance in their favour at the end of twenty years." There was a 

 clever little chestnut mare in one of the stalls, showing a deal of 

 blood, and, as the dealers say, "as long as a cart rope/' which I 

 saw Williamson ride twice when I was in his country, appear- 



6 



