NIMROITS NORTHERN TOUR. 115 



succeeded by an unsuccessful cast. " He's gone to ground ; Jez- 

 abel, good bitch, has marked him in." (Blowing his horn.) " Get 

 them away, Jack, we can't bolt him, for the drain runs across the 

 high road.'' Unfortunately, however, a yokel comes up to this 

 best of all gentlemen-huntsmen with the following pithy informa- 

 tion which he himself knew as well as the yokel did. " I say 

 maester ; there's no fox in yon drain, for I sees the cobwebs 

 right in the mouth on't P 



But, believe me, Mr. Williamson, there is to animal, if hot to 

 mechanical, power a limit which cannot be exceeded, howmuch- 

 so-ever it may be increased by judicious assistance from man. 

 The Duke of Buccleuch's hounds or those of any other man 

 form not an exception to this rule. That hour's work in the whin 

 cover, added to another hour over a deep, and, in great part, 

 ploughed country, some of which carried, as the term is, told upon 

 them, as it would tell upon all others ; and towards the end of 

 forty minutes more it is not to be wondered at that young hounds 

 which per haps had not been so active in the whin should be 

 at the head, and some of the old ones at the tail, and particularly 

 so at the pace the pack was at this time going. Shortly after 

 this the day told upon the horses, and the walls and ditches 

 looked high and wide even to the best of them ; but I saw no 

 falls, and but few were absent at the finish. 



I have previously alluded to two clever casts I saw made "by- 

 Williamson, one of which, " the cast forward? occurred to- 

 wards the end of this chase. After running very hard over low, 

 deep, and rich land, the hounds got upon that which was higher 

 and lighter, which brought them to check in some plantations, 

 a short distance from a gentleman's house which was below 

 them.* Not hitting off the scent, after the second fling for it, 

 Williamson put his horn to his mouth, and galloped down to the 

 house, at which he knew there was a drain occasionally used by 

 foxes. He was right ; our fox had tried it, and gone on. 



I have already mentioned the finish to this run. Our fox 

 evidently one of the right sort gained the large village of 

 Yetholm, the renowned colony of gipsies, and there found his 

 safety. And yet one would imagine Yetholm to be about the last 

 place for any living animal eatable or non-eatable to find itself 

 secure in ; but it appears that the gipsies here are but little dis- 

 tinguished by peculiarity of character or habits from their fellow- 

 townsmen, although they do not intermarry with them. There 

 is a fine lake near this place called Primside Lake, which Mr, 

 George Baillie told me abounded with pike of great size ; and 



* Called The Cherry Trees. 



82 



