NIMRODS NORTHERN TOUR. 157 



size, out of one end of which popped the head of a wooden 

 horse, and out of the other his tail. " Ah," thought I within 

 myself ; " you are some happy man in the full enjoyment of 

 domestic felicity" (recollecting also at the moment that, about 

 that time ten years, when on one of my tours, 1 was detected in 

 the self-same act myself, although I was silly enough to feel 

 ashamed of it) " and are returning to your wife and children 

 in the country, after a week's visit to the metropolis." Now who 

 should this fond father be, but the aforesaid Sir Ralph Anstruther, 

 to whom I was, immediately on my arrival at the quay, intro- 

 duced by Mr. Earle, and who, after a pleasant trip of about 

 twenty miles, was met on the opposite coast by his lady in her 

 pony-phaeton with two beautiful greys, for the purpose of con- 

 veying him to Balcaskie. Mr. Earle and myself got into a 

 "yellow post-chaise," and arrived at Mount Melville by dressing 

 time not, however, without a day having been fixed for our all 

 meeting together at Balcaskie. 



It is not necessary for me to say much more of Mr. Whyte 

 Melville, at least of his private history, as from his having been 

 several seasons at Melton Mowbray, he is very well known to 

 the sporting world. To the fashionable world he cannot be a 

 stranger, for his manners and deportment at once prove that 

 they were formed and nurtured in that school ; and his having 

 married a sister of the Duke of Leeds is a voucher for my asser- 

 tion. For a manager of a pack of fox-hounds no man can be 

 fitter, for he is a good sportsman, a fine rider, and his very 

 gentlemanlike conduct in the field makes him highly popular in 

 the county. 



The house of Mount Melville built of a stone equal, to ap- 

 pearance, to that called Portland, or Bath, and standing on an 

 eminence commanding a view of St. Andrews and its beautiful 

 bay at the desirable distance of three miles has an imposing- 

 effect, and I consider it to exhibit the handsomest exterior of all 

 I saw in Scotland. In its interior is everything in keeping with 

 the correct taste of the owner ; and amongst its various decora- 

 tions, is a magnificent picture over the sideboard in the dining- 

 room, containing portraits of thirteen of Mr. Melville's horses 

 and their riders, twelve of which, including himself, are ridden 

 by distinguished Meltonians, whose likenesses are admirably 

 preserved by the artist.* They are all going very well, and 

 " best pace," over the finest part of Leicestershire, with the ex- 

 ception of one who has a fall and is being leaped over by Mr. 

 Maxse, by way of a foil to the rest. He is supposed to be a snob 



* Ferneley, of Melton. 



