NT M ROUS NORTHERN TOUR. 283 



step. Then again, lie is a horseman of the first class for nerve 

 and straightforward work in the field, which gives him no slight 

 advantage. That he erred in letting his hounds get the mastery 

 of him, from motives of kindness and good feeling, he is himself 

 ready to acknowledge, and it is much to be lamented that his 

 principle will not succeed. Nothing is more true than that 

 hounds should be encouraged, not rated, to cry ; and that whip- 

 ping faulty hounds makes good hounds shy ; still, as there are 

 in all packs many hounds that will do what is wrong, and very 

 few that will always do what is right, the use of the lash and the 

 rate are inseparable from discipline in the field. There are 

 points in which Lord Kelburne excels in his system of hunting 

 hounds. His method of laying them on to a scent is perfect, 

 and in his casts when at check, he appears to know exactly the 

 time they ought to be allowed to try and make it good them- 

 selves ; and this is a point of no small importance, especially in 

 a country like the one I saw him in, where a fox has so many 

 advantages over hounds. In drawing his covers, his lordship 

 appeared to me to be rather too far from his hounds, which ac- 

 counted for their once or twice slipping away with their fox, un- 

 observed by him ; but as far as I could judge of him in chase, 

 and I saw him in some trying situations, he appeared equal to 

 give them all the assistance require'd. His country, like most 

 parts of Scotland that I hunted in, however, is calculated to keep 

 every huntsman in a fidget, as well as to render his hounds both 

 slack and wild, from the quantity of open drains which invite 

 foxes to go to ground a fact that will not, I believe, be disputed 

 by those who have witnessed the effect of disappointment to 

 animals so sagacious and yet so impatient as fox-hounds. 



To sum up all. I saw Lord Kelburne, as a huntsman, to 

 disadvantage. His hounds were wild from the cause I have 

 stated ; the weather was wilder, with the exception of one day ; 

 his whippers-in were insufficient, which is proved by his having 

 drafted them ; and I saw him in a very difficult country. I saw 

 enough, however, to convince me that, the two principal obstacles 

 being removed, namely, the want of discipline, and good assis- 

 tance from whippers-in he will have his share of sport; at all 

 events, the want of it will not lie at his door. What his kennel 

 is now, it is o'nly in my power to imagine, from the additions 

 made to it, and of course a judicious draft ; but this I will repeat, 

 that a more highly-bred and business-like pack, to look at, need 

 not be in any man's kennel than the one I saw, and for any 

 country under the sun. If they could not have killed a fox in a 

 good country, and with a good holding scent, I should have 



