NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 37 



aristocratic and riclily peopled county 1 Oh no — and here is one of tho 

 distinguishing features in fox-hunting, highly complimentary to it — I 

 found him in a small brick house, with one window to a room, much 

 such a one as a master mechanic might be expected to be found in ; but 

 which now appeared to afford all the comforts of a palace. His lordship 

 received me with the greatest kindness, and invited me to dinner on the 

 same day at the Black Bull, where he told me the few gentlemen who 

 were then arrived in the town were to assemble, previously to the open- 

 ing of the campaign in the Dunse country on the morrow. 



People may say what they will to the contrary, but I am quite satis- 

 fied there is no passion so universal as the vanity of being known to the 

 rest of mankind, howsoever diversified or disguised under different forms 

 and appearances. An humble individual as I am, I was at this time better 

 known to Lord Elcho than Lord Elcho was known to me. In fact my 

 knowledge of his lordship only extended to my having met him in the 

 field in Leicestershire, in which county all the sporting world know he 

 resided for several seasons, distinguishing- himself as a horseman amongst 

 the best of the best. His character there was — " who can beat Elcho, if 

 he gets a start V In private life also he is equally hard to beat; and as a 

 friend and a companion, his universal popularity in his own country and 

 in others renders it unnecessary for me to speak of him. But what said 

 they of him in Leicestershire as a sportsman ? Why, what the late Mr. 

 Meynell said of John Lockley — " riding was his forte ;" and I doubt 

 not, from all I have heard of his lordship in that country, that, cum 

 multis aliis, he voted hounds a bore unless they went fast enough for 

 him. But this seeming indifference to hunting — this apparent preference 

 of the horse to the hound, of the horseman to the sportsman, could not 

 continue long in a man like Lord Elcho, who was from his youth a 



