•>'-' 



38 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



sportsman in every other acceptation of that word ; and here comes the 

 proof. On quitting Leicestershire, he set up a pack of harriers in Scot- 

 land and hunted them himself for three successive seasons. Whether or 

 not at the time of his doing so, his lordship had any intention of keeping 

 fox-hounds in Scotland, and hunting them himself, it is out of my power 

 to determine ; but of this I am certain, that nothing would be more 

 likely to qualify a hard-riding Leicestershire gentleman for that office, 

 than to witness the patience and perseverance of a close-hunting pack of 

 harriers (for, after all, hunting is but hunting), and the ill effects of 

 pressing upon and over-riding them when in their work. If 1 may be 

 allowed such an expression, they would bring his lordship's head down 

 together with their own ; and instead of looking, as when in Leicester- 

 shire, for the weakest place in a bull-finch, or for the soundest bank of a 

 brook, he would be admiring Bonny-bell and Beauty, and the short turn 

 they were making, and also thinking within himself whether they would 

 make it good over the foil. But to cease my conjectures and turn to 

 facts. Lord Elcho, dropping his harriers and flying at nobler game, got 

 together, in a shorter time than were ever before got together, a hard 

 working and steady pack of fox-hounds, hunted by himself*. It must 

 be observed, that when I first saw them they had only been at work one 

 season and a half, which must be allowed to be very young days ; but 

 with a person at their head whose heart and soul is in the sport, they will 

 progress rapidly towards perfection. Indeed, Lord Kintore wrote me 

 word lately of his having been paying a visit to his brother huntsman at 

 Amisfield — confirming every word which I have advanced as to the rapid 

 formation of the pack, and adding the important fact of Lord Elcho's 



* His lordship commenced his first season with a huntsman, but he broke his leg 

 in a fall, and died. 



