204 HIM RODS NORTHERN TOUR. 



Knight upon Contract ;" and " Going to Cover,' 7 from the New 

 Sporting Magazine. " Two Boxers in attitude ;" several eminent 

 race-horses : some good coaching pictures, amongst them the 

 Brighton Age, with the admirable likeness of poor Stevenson. 

 In his lordship's bedroom is the history of Tom Moody, with 

 plates, and several other insignia of the ruling passion for the 

 chase. But to such pictures as these, the sportsman needeth not 

 the history. As Horace says, " Mutum est pictura poema." 



IN my last I merely landed myself at "the huntsman's stall" at 

 Cask, where, at six o'clock, Lord Kintore and myself sat down to 

 our dinner, there being at that time no other visitor than myself 

 in the house. The following day being a hunting day, his lord- 

 ship confined himself this evening to two or three glasses of sherry 

 during dinner, and a glass of whiskey toddy afterwards, whilst I 

 am ashamed to own that besides the two or three glasses of 

 sherry, I put under my waistcoat a pint of champagne and a 

 bottle of stout claret, the only excuse for which must be, the sort 

 of buoyancy of soul one experiences on finding oneself under the 

 roof of an old and kind friend, and a master of fox-hounds to 

 boot, which goes no small way with me. 



Tuesday, Dec. 23. It being dusk as well as dinner time when 

 we approached the house on the preceding evening, it was only 

 on the morning of this day that I saw the Cask stable-yard, 

 which I was rather anxious to see, anticipating something good 

 from knowing under whose direction it had been arranged. 

 " Whence this ?" said I to his lordship, as I cast my eyes up- 

 wards to a picture of hounds running into their fox, which was 

 hung against the wall, over the door-porch. " Why," replied he, 

 " I saw that picture hung out as a sign over the door of a public- 

 house in Morpeth, and I got the guard of the mail to purchase 

 it for me.' 7 " Truly characteristic," muttered I to myself, as I 

 walked forwards to the stables ; and, really, the picture is worth 

 the place it occupies, being a very fair representation of this ex- 

 hilarating scene. But the stables how did I find them occupied ? 

 Was the " non sum qualis eram" evident at first sight ? Yes, for 

 there was no Boliver there ; no Provincial ; no White Stockings ; 

 but there were twelve or fourteen very serviceable hunters, the 

 greater part of them, particularly those for his lordship's own 

 riding, the same as had been with the hounds in Berkshire, and 

 perhaps none the better for the many hot shirts they had had 

 there. The stables are as good as need be ; the condition of the 

 horses was excellent, and this can easily be accounted for. Lord 

 Kintore gives them every chance to be so ; he summers them 

 well, and they are in the hands of a most valuable servant, 



