NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR, 147 



force of this remark was amply exemplified on the morning I am 

 speaking of. Mr. Ramsay's hounds are noted for their steadi- 

 ness ; but had a person, unaccustomed to hunting, and conse- 

 quently unequal to making those allowances which accidental 

 circumstances demand ; had such a person, 1 repeat, seen them 

 draw for their first fox this day, and then left them, he would 

 have left them with the impression that they were wildness 

 personified. In short, they were running about in all directions, 

 and would neither come to horn nor holloa ! 



Our first scent was on a disturbed fox which we could not 

 hunt up to, to do any good with, so went to try for another. We 

 found in Calder wood, the most extraordinary, and the most ro- 

 mantic place, save one, that I ever saw a pack of fox-hounds 

 thrown into. In fact it was a place that appeared to me like a 

 forlorn-hope ; but owing to a combination of circumstances, for 

 instance, an improvement in the day, and the exertions of the 

 men (the activity and science displayed by the first whipper-in 

 delighted me ; he was a perfect Mungo, here, there, and every- 

 where, telegraphing with his hand and whip when he could not 

 be heard, and giving the office with his voice when he could), 

 added to the steady working of the hounds, our fox quitted this 

 wild ravine, and boldly faced the open country. But I shall not 

 soon forget the crossing of this ravine, or the rocky bottomed 

 brook that was roaring in the hollow, or the narrow path by 

 which we gained the opposite side. The scene was really an 

 imposing one. The clatter of the horses' feet among the stones,, 

 as they scrambled, as it were, 



" Up the margin of the lake, 



Between the precipice and brake" 



with the cry of the hounds, beautifully re-echoed from the deep 

 and winding valley which was below us, gave a wildness to the 

 scene seldom experienced in fox-hunting, and requiring an abler 

 pen than mine to describe. 



When once clear of this awkward and perplexing defile, a 

 good country presented itself ; the pack settled down to their 

 fox, and I thought we were in for a second East Gordon clipper, 

 as these out-of-the-way-looking places generally produce those 

 that can fly for their lives. At the end of a mile and a half, 

 however, the hounds came to a check in a road which would 

 have been a fatal one but for the following circumstance. As 

 Lord Hopetoun and myself were in the act of leaping a low wall 

 into the road, his lordship exclaimed to me " There is the scent " 

 catching with his eye, what escaped mine, namely, two couples 

 of hounds carrying it down a strip of plantations, on the opposite 

 side of the road. Clapping spurs to my horse, 1 gave Scott the 



102 



