NIMRO&S NORTHERN TOUR. 133 



jumped out of it, apparently none the worse, and a good country 

 was before him. 



The method taken to bolt this fox reminds me of the fact of a 

 fox having been bolted out of a drain before these hounds the 

 season before last, by an expedient quite new, I should imagine, 

 to all the sporting world. Our fox was started from his hiding 

 place by the means of a long rail which reached more than half 

 the length of the drain ; the other by means still more appalling 

 to poor Charley's ears. The curricle mail coming past the place 

 at the moment, either Sir David Baird or Mr. Campbell of 

 Saddel but I forget which took the guard's horn (one of un- 

 usual length) and putting it up to its mouth-piece in the drain, 

 gave a blast that, aided by its subterraneous force, soon did the 

 business. The cry of hounds must have been sweet music to it. 



One more word or two of this Gordon country, which is 

 becoming notorious from the sport it has shown ; for when I 

 was at Cask, Lord Kintore received a letter from Captain Bar- 

 clay of Ury, to which the following P. S. was appended : "The 

 duke has had another brilliant thing of fifty-seven minutes from 

 East Gordon, and killed in the open. Pace, tremendous; out of 

 a field of forty, eight only saw anything of it." West Gordon, 

 where the hounds met on the day I have been just speaking of, 

 is also renowned in the domestic history of Scotland. " The 

 parish of Gordon," says the author of the " Beauties of Scotland,"* 

 " is said to have derived its name from a person, or his de- 

 scendant, that came to England with William the Conqueror." 

 Having visited Scotland during the reign of Malcolm Canmorc, 

 and killed a wild boar that infested the neighbourhood of the 

 parish alluded to, he received a grant of certain lands there, and 

 gave them his own name of Gordon. The Dukes of Gordon arc 

 descended from him ; and in memory of this exploit, the white 

 boar makes a part of the family arms. 



Although we were deprived of our sport with the hounds by 

 untoward circumstances, several little incidents occurred to 

 make the morning of this day agreeable. One was the recapitu- 

 lation of some of those which took place at the dinner given to 

 Mr. Listen, at Edinburgh, to which I have before alluded, as 

 also to Williamson's presence at it. He was asked by several of 

 the field why he did not make a speech upon the occasion par- 

 ticularly when the duke and his fox-hounds was drunk (indeed 

 Mr. Campbell's prolific imagination made an admirable one for 

 him on the spot, which his Grace appeared to enjoy as much as 

 any of us) but he modestly replied that although he knew how 



* Vol. ii. p. 14. 



