274 NIMRO&S NORTHERN TOUR. 



no sooner ended, however, and we had placed ourselves snugly 

 around the horse-shoe to be nearer to the fire, for one reason, 

 and closer to the claret jug for another, and withal was just get- 

 ing into discourse about hounds, horses, hunting countries, and 

 men than open flew the door, and in marched the same strap- 

 ping Highlander that had greeted me on my arrival ; and with 

 not what Byron calls "the natural music of the mountain 

 reed," but, to my ears, that "insult to the groans of a dying hog," 

 as some one calls them the bag-pipes in full play. The laird, 

 nowever, declared he could not digest his dinner without at least 

 a twenty minutes' burst of pipe-music, and of course I had no- 

 thing left for it but to listen, and to endeavour to discover some- 

 thing like a tune in the burring drone, but that was " no go." 



Of Abercairney's hounds, at least of the sport I saw with them, 

 I have next to nothing to say that can either interest or amuse ; 

 for the weather was so bad that 1 only saw them once in the 

 field during my visit, and then without a prospect of sport ; and 

 again, I was unable to travel beyond a trot on a pony, from the 

 effects of my late fall. On looking into the list, however, which 

 contains thirty-one couples of hunting hounds, it is apparent 

 that, if they are not good in the field, the fault does not lie with 

 their owner, for he has not only a strong pack for a three-days- 

 a-week country, but it will be seen that he has spared neither 

 trouble nor expense in going to the best kennels, north and south, 

 for his blood. His first huntsman came from the Hatfield pack,, 

 to which he was first whipper-in, and was succeeded by John 

 Arber, who was with him at the period to which I am alluding, 

 but who, I have reason to believe, has left him, from the circum- 

 stance of the name of Hall being given as huntsman, in the list 

 of packs printed in the New Sporting Magazine of January last. 

 Hall, who was whipper-in to Mr. Hodgson, in the Holderness 

 country, was Abercairney's first whip when I was in his country, 

 and a very sharp lad second to him twin brother to another 

 sharp lad who was in the stables. 



When speaking of a man in a professional point of view, he 

 should always be judged according to circumstances, and my ex- 

 perience of Arber in the field is restricted to two days with Mr. 

 Wyndham's hounds, when nothing happened to bring him into 

 anything like difficulties, and one day with Abercairney's, of 

 which the same may be said. Nevertheless, the little I saw of 

 him pleased me. He is very neat in his person, looks very well 

 on his horse, and is quiet and respectful in his deportment. His 

 hounds I am now alluding to Abercairney's were well under 

 his command, and came, I think, as quickly out of cover as 

 any I ever hunted with in my life. I should say Arber excels 

 in this part of his business. He whistles to them a good deal 



