NIM ROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 177 



ever, for when I saw him in the kennel I thought his jacket and 

 breeches were a tight fit. I fear he will get heavy, which I 

 should regret, being of opinion that some day or other he will 

 .signalize himself as a sportsman. I was given to understand 

 that his father only placed him tinder Walker by way of entering 

 him to hounds, as the term is ; and he could not well have chosen 

 a better preceptor for him. He would teach him to be quick 

 and decisive ; and when experience and good judgment are 

 united to quickness and prompt decision, a huntsman may be 

 said to have arrived at a point very near to perfection. 



Saturday, I3th. From my visit to the kennel at Cupar I pro- 

 ceeded to Balcaskie, where my friends from Mount Melville 

 were engaged to meet me, and moreover the next morning's fix- 

 ture was one of Sir Ralph Anstruther's covers. The house of 

 Balcaskie is one of apparently very considerable antiquity al- 

 though replete with every comfort having the Gothic window, 

 the tower-like staircase, and the flower-garden, laid out in hand- 

 some parterres, divided by w r ell trimmed yew hedges, after the 

 fashion of our forefathers, with the advantage of a beautiful 

 terrace the entire length of the house, which overlooks the whole, 

 furnishing to the eye a most agreeable prospect. And as if it 

 were in keeping with this old-fashioned mansion, its yew hedges, 

 its Gothic windows, and its tower-like staircase, there is to be 

 seen at Balcaskie a very good fashion to which I would reluc- 

 tantly apply the epithet " old." This is a young couple, whose 

 means would allow of their entering into the dissipation of either 

 metropolis, enjoying by preference the endearing familiarities of 

 domestic life, together with the pleasures of the country ; and 

 finding, in themselves, the reciprocal cause of mutual happiness. 

 Depend unon it, reader, they are right. The atmosphere of the 

 one abounds with taint and corruption, in which the heart shrinks 

 and withers like a blighted flower ; whereas, in the pure and un- 

 contaminated tranquillity of the other it flourishes and continues 

 to expand to delight* 



* Having had the pleasure of meeting Sir Ralph Anstruther a few 

 months back, at Mr. Dalyell's (his brother-in-law), in Hertfordshire, I 

 was amused and gratified by the following anecdote. "I was much 

 delighted," said Sir Ralph, " with your article on the Horse, in the 

 Encyclopedia Bntannica^ and, exclusive of the pleasure the perusal of 

 it gave me, I was a great gainer by the purchase of the volume which 

 contained it, for the following reason : I was, at that time, making some 

 improvement in my old-fashioned garden at Balcaskie, and availed my- 

 ^self of some excellent hints on that subject, given in an article on Hor- 

 ticulture, which immediately follows yours on the Horse." 



