256 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



the lady who sat on my right, if I did not admire the bride. I 

 answered supposing myself in France, " Passable? but the fact 

 is, I was under a mistake as to which of the numerous young 

 ladies in the room was the handsome bride, for handsome she 

 really was. 



Wednesday, February 4. Left Mount Melville with Mr. 

 Dalyell, and met his hounds at Fotheringham Lodge, about eight 

 miles from Dundee. The following account of the day's sport 

 appears in my note-book. " First fox, thirty-two minutes, and 

 killed. Second fox, twenty minutes to ground. Tresbienfait.^ 

 So much for living in France. Time was, when I should not 

 have used such mongrel language as this. 



Thursday, 5. Left Bitrnside with "Archy Douglas," to dine 

 with Captain Rait, at Arniston, near Montrose, on the great 

 north road, where I found the gallant captain domiciled among 

 all the comforts necessary to a sportsman and a bachelor, con- 

 sisting of a good house, a good cellar of wine, a capital stud of 

 hunters for the size of it, and one of the most comfortable 

 smoking-rooms I ever entered in my life. Our party was not 

 large, consisting only of our host, the honourable Captain 

 Arbuthnot, the two Douglases, Mr. Hay, of Latham Grange 

 his neighbour and myself. It would be a waste of words to 

 say we enjoyed ourselves in the dining-room, but it did not end 

 there. We adjourned to the said smoking-room, in which I per- 

 ceived the insignia of the soldier were mingled with those of the 

 sportsman, and the whole thing was in keeping. And I also 

 witnessed something particularly in keeping with the habits and 

 feelings of the bold dragoon. Mr. Hay returned home at night, 

 but, loath to depart, kept his gig at the door nearly long enough 

 to have been indicted under, the " animal cruelty act," for it was 

 freezing very hard at the time, " Come, come, Hay," said Rait, 

 " either have your horse taken back to the stables or else light 

 your pipe again and be off" Here was the promptness of the 

 soldier, and the good feeling of .the sportsman, who always loves 

 a horse ; and Mr. Hay, whose good humour is proverbial, obeyed 

 the word of command in an instant, although we were very com- 

 fortable and merry at the time. 



Friday, 6. We were to have hunted with Mr. Dalyell this day, 

 who met at a good place almost half way between Burn side and 

 Arniston, but as the frost was so hard, and the ground sprinkled 

 with snow, all chance of hounds meeting appeared hopeless. 

 But here is an instance in proof of an assertion often made by 

 me that, after only one nights frost, and particularly from the 

 first of February to the end of the season, sportsmen should 

 always go to a cover ten miles off, if they have nothing particular 



