2o8 NIMROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 



which more enjoyment of hounds may be had than in any other 

 that I saw in Scotland ; for, from the nature of it, it holds a 

 good scent ; and, barring now and then a brook, a large fence 

 is a rara avis in it. In every respect it is favourable to hounds ; 

 and were I master of a pack, I should much prefer hunting 

 it to either the New Forest, or indeed any other part of Hamp- 

 shire, or the far-famed Craven country, in Berkshire, which Mr. 

 Warde used to say, he was " condemned to hunt, for his sins." 

 It is, however, a narrow country ; being bounded by hills on one 

 side, and the Atlantic Ocean on the other ; and without assist- 

 ance from the Keith Hall and Buchan countries, would not 

 stand three days a week on the average of seasons. As it is, 

 however, Lord Kintore generally kills his twenty brace of foxes 

 in the season, which, considering he is under the necessity of 

 making short ones, and must frequently be interrupted by 

 weather in that high latitude parallel, I believe, with Peters- 

 burgh is what I call giving a very good account of them. Be 

 it recollected, that thirty-six brace was the average number of 

 noses on the door, in the best of Mr. Meynell's days in the 

 Ouorn country viz., from the commencement of the season of 

 1791 to the conclusion of that of 1796. 



It is hardly necessary to repeat, that Lord Kintore hunts his 

 own hounds, assisted by two whippers-in, exclusive of the man 

 that rides his second horse, who of course is useful to him at 

 times. His first whip is my old acquaintance, Joe Grant, and a 

 capital sportsman he is. He came to his lordship, with the 

 hounds he purchased of Mr. Nicoll, by whom Joe was educated, 

 and it may be recollected that I have already had him in print.* 

 As a sportsman, however, I cannot say too much of him, for he 

 is an out-an-outer in his line, and very much improved since he 

 has been in Scotland, which shows that he benefits by experi- 

 ence, which cannot be said of all men. He is not a neat horse- 

 man, but that he cannot help. Fine horsemanship is as much 

 an endowment of nature, as Professor Wilson's brains are, and 

 she has unkindly denied it to Joe, but he still gets well to his 

 hounds. The second whip, at this time Jack Wilson, is a 

 Lindow in the saddle, with one of the best bridle-hands I ever 

 saw ; but as the man said of his son, whom he had apprenticed 



* It may not be amiss to repeat the anecdote I am alluding to. 

 During my visit to Mr. Nicoll, and at the end of the last year of his 

 keeping hounds, I said one day to Joe, that I could not think what was 

 come to his master, for he scarcely now ever went into the kennel. Joe 

 was silent, but on my pressing him for a reason for it, he replied with a 

 sigh (we were with the hounds at the moment), "Well, sir; I suppose 

 he is a-iveaning himself from 'em." 



