2i3 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



House.* We talked over The Levett (as Theophilus Levett 

 was called), on Banker ; Sambrook Anson, on Neptune ; the 

 Boultbys, the little lawyer, Ned Croxall, the little tanner of 

 Nuneaton,f and others, who used to go so well to hounds in 

 those bygone days. Then we had each ridden alongside Lord 

 Forester, and all his brilliant contemporaries, many of whom, 

 with himself, are now in their graves. " But is it possible," said 

 his lordship, " that, as I am told he is, the Tom Cholmondeley 

 of those times, the Lord Delamere of these, is still showing them 

 the way in Cheshire ? w I assured him that I had reason to 

 believe he was still going with the best men there, and that I 

 hoped he would long continue to do so, as such sportsmen as his 

 lordship is are becoming scarce. The finish to this conversation 

 with Lord Fife was a hearty shake by the hand, and an assurance, 

 that if I visited Scotland again it should not be his fault if we 

 did not talk over these matters at Duff House over a bottle of 

 good claret. 



Tuesday, 3oth. Left Dunlugas at rather an early hour in Mr. 

 Leslie's gig ; breakfasted at Cask, and proceeded to Keith Hall 

 in another gig left there for the purpose. Found Lord Kintore 

 on his farm, leaning over hurdles, looking at some sheep eating 

 turnips. ' But I saw something I did not at all like. I saw the 

 clouds clearing away to the westward, and the evening-star 

 twinkling with more than usual brightness. " A stop to hunt- 

 ing," said I, as I approached him, and I was right ; for the next 

 morning there was ice half an inch thick. 



As far as the two houses are concerned, the exchange of the 

 " huntsman's stall" at Cask for the mansion at Keith Hall is 

 unquestionably a move for the better, for a more comfortable 

 and better-found residence than the latter cannot be desired by 

 man. It is situated at a mile distance from the small town of 

 Inverary, one of Lord Kintore's boroughs, in a lawn of some- 

 where about a hundred acres in extent, on the bank of the river 

 Urie, and commanding a very pleasing view of the town, with 

 its old castle, and the picturesque vale beyond it, considered the 

 most productive soil in this part of the country, from which cir- 

 cumstance it takes its name. The domain, consisting of about 

 three hundred and fifty acres, is very highly farmed by his lord- 



* Then occupied by Lord Spencer Chicliester. 



f The name of this person was Burton ; but he was equally well 

 known in the sporting world as " The Parachute," from his always ap- 

 pearing with hounds in a light green coat. He rode a small bay mare 

 that was very hard to beat ; in fact she carried him quite in the first 

 flight, in Leicestershire, in Mr. Assheton Smith's time, as he will well 

 remember. 



