156 N1MROHS NORTHERN TOUR. 



and gentlemen now resident in Scotland. It was instituted in 

 1777 ; and it appears that the oldest member of it is Mr. Baillie 

 of Jerviswood z>., of Mellerstain, where he now resides. 



I was given to understand that the funds of this club are very 

 considerable, notwithstanding the numerous acts of beneficence 

 which emanate from them ; and the honour attached to an elec- 

 tion to it is shown by the number and rank of the several candi- 

 dates. It undoubtedly towers far above all other hunting or 

 racing clubs, perhaps I may venture to say, in Europe. The 

 annual autumn meeting is held (having been first fixed upon by 

 ballot) at different places in Scotland, when, as all your readers 

 know, there is much excellent racing, and where the fox-hounds'* 

 of the country attend. It was last year at Ayr, where those of 

 Lord Kelburne attended ; and, as I was informed by a friend 

 who partook of it, showed some very good sport " unusually 

 good, indeed" were his words "for that time of the year." 



Like the fablers of antiquity, I wander from country to country ; 

 but, unlike them, I state nothing that I do not know, or have 

 good reason to believe, to be true. I have already mentioned, 

 that the result of my meeting Mr. Whyte Melville, at Chester 

 Hall, was an invitation to his house in Fife, for the purpose of 

 seeing the Fife hounds ; and I was also given to understand, 

 that there were other houses in his neighbourhood whose doors 

 would be open to receive me amongst them that of Sir Ralph 

 Anstruther, Bart., of Balcaskie, represented to me as just the 

 sort of person I should like to visit the well-bred, but unaffected 

 country gentleman and sportsman, and keeping what is called 

 an excellent house, in other words, a good larder and a good 

 cook. But my first start from Edinburgh was to Mount Mel- 

 ville, and having sent my servant and horses forward on the 

 Tuesday, I found myself on the morning of Wednesday (loth) 

 seated, cum multis aliis, in a one-horse omnibus, a sort of 

 "cruelty drag," which conveys passengers to the quay from 

 which the Largo steamboat starts, that being the route marked 

 out for me, and where I had appointed to meet Mr. Earle, who 

 was also booked for Mount Melville. 



The road may be termed the theatre of adventures ; and I 

 have oftentimes diverted myself with thinking that an amusing 

 episode might have been the result of my having been acquainted 

 with the history of all my fellow-passengers, and there were 

 some queer-looking ones amongst them, in this " cruelty drag." 

 Just, however, as the clock struck ninethe precise hour of 

 starting the door opened to add one more to the number, and 

 in stepped a stout but comely person, just in the prime of life, 

 carrying a brown paper parcel in his hand of no inconsiderable 



