NIMRO&S NORTHERN TOUR. 291 



On Friday, 22nd, I arrived at Merton House, in the county 

 of Durham, the residence of that " acme of a sportsman and a 

 gentleman," as Lord Kintore calls him, Mr. Ralph Lambton, to 

 whom I had signified my intention of visiting him, on my return 

 towards the South, and I am happy to say, I found him in ex- 

 cellent health and spirits. Neither was I long in his presence 

 before he put me on horseback, and we rode to the kennel, which 

 is situated in the park of his nephew the Earl of Durham. 

 Fenwick, the feeder, instantly recognized me, as also did Bob 

 Hunnum the first whip, whom we met in the park, and in a 

 situation, which, as Mr. Lambton allowed, would have just 

 suited Frank Grant, as a study for a sketch of a whipper-in, on 

 a non-hunting day. As for Bob himself, and the puppies he had 

 in the panniers,* I consider them to have been above all price ; 

 the heads of the two beautiful little animals, with their coal 

 black eyes, tanned brown, and velvet-like ears, which were to be 

 seen peeping out of the panniers and nodding to the step of the 

 old pony, little conscious of the value their owner set upon them 

 what a beautiful sketch, I say, might have been made of them ! 

 All young animals, or nearly all, come under the denomination 

 of pretty, but there is something in a young fox-hound of this age, 

 which is worthy a more significant epithet. 



The pack had been fed previous to our arrival at the kennel 

 be it remembered these hounds eat no flesh the day before they 

 hunt, : but we accompanied them in their usual walk afterwards, 

 and they struck me as being hounds of more power than when 

 I saw them last, which was on my Yorkshire Tour in 1 827. 

 Their standard height, however, appeared to be about the same 

 namely, dog-hounds about twenty-three, and bitches twenty- 

 two inches. Nothing need be more perfect than they are ; or 

 more justly entitled to the high character they bear ; but taking 

 into consideration the length of time this pack has been under 

 the direction of the master of it, and that he puts out from sixty 

 to seventy couples of puppies every year, we cease to wonder at 

 their being so, or that, in what must be altogether considered 

 only a second-rate country, and interrupted by railroads, their 

 average number of foxes killed for many years past, amounts to 

 fifty brace ! It is also worthy of notice, that the numbers killed 

 by the dog and bitch packs for some years past, has been very 

 nearly equal. It was one a-head in favour of the bitches, for 

 that individual seasonup to the time I mean of my last visit to 

 Mr. Lambton. 



On our return to Merton House we looked over the stables, 



* He was taking a lot of puppies to their walks. 



19-2 



