25 2 NIM ROD'S NOR THERN TO UR. 



to write on scent, I shall have something to say on this especial 

 circumstance, not only because I have at times seen hounds run 

 so hard down wind, but from some experiments I have made on 

 the effect of a current of air, in conveying certain odours. Mr. 

 Dalyell mounted me this day on Jack Orville. 



There is one day's hunting with these hounds of which I find 

 no mention in my note-book ; but it occurs to my recollection 

 from two or three circumstances connected with it. First, I rode 

 that capital hunter Tom Thumb, since sold by Mr. Dalyell to 

 the Duke of Beaufort ; secondly, that we ran one fox over part 

 of the Grampian hills ; and, lastly, that we had the usual luck 

 of this part of Scotland, in running two foxes to ground, one of 

 which, being close to a farm house, was dug to and killed soon 

 after he was bolted. The scent was wretchedly bad, and a bitch 

 called Goneril was the only hound in the pack that at one par- 

 ticular check would own it, on a dry path, in a lane, and on very 

 light ground. " Oh, Goneril," says Albany, in Lear, " you are 

 not worth the dust which the rude wind blows in your face." Mr. 

 Dalyell must have been of a different opinion, when he cheered 

 his Goneril this day. 



A gentleman dined with us in the evening at Burn side, whose 

 name stands high in Scotland Mr. Guthrie, of Guthrie ; and 

 there was another of Mr. Dalyell's guests, during this visit to 

 him, especially invited to meet me, and who is really worthy a 

 niche in the gallery of sporting characters. This was the cele- 

 brated Forfarshire yeoman, of whom I have before spoken, as 

 having witnessed and given an account of the phenomenon of 

 the " twa geese on one dish," at Captain Barclay's annual sale 

 blowout at Ury. His name is Proctor, but generally known as 

 " Jock Proctor," to distinguish him from his brother and bro- 

 ther bachelor too who resides in the same house with him, and 

 assists in the management of a large and fine farm which lies 

 contiguous to the great road from Forfar to Edinburgh. But 

 Jock has another farm, which he took many years back on a long 

 lease, from the late Duke of Gordon, and he has so improved 

 it by good management, that he receives from the under-tenant 

 the sum of ,365 per annum over and above what he pays for it ; 

 or, to use his own words, he gets " a poond by it every time he 

 puts on his breeks." 



But Jock is a fine sample of the real British yeoman, a 

 character which, when original, and not diluted with the affec- 

 tation of the gentleman, I very greatly admire ; and I greatly 

 question whether there is a much more useful one within the 

 whole pale of society. Of Jock's respectability one proof 

 will be sufficient. He was in great favour with the late 



