44 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



By the bye, an anecdote in confirmation of this may not be amiss here- 

 " Joe," said I to him one day, " how did you feel when you were fol- 

 lowing my lord over that bog?" " Lord, sir," he replied, *' why I 

 expected to be swallowed up alive every jump my horse took ; but what 

 was to be done? the hounds was rurrning right into him." The bog was 

 a mile and a half across, and just sufficiently frozen to admit of their 

 horses leaping- from one tussuck of grass to another. 



I am travelling without my host ; I have said nothing of Lord Elcho's 

 hounds ; but the best comment upon their character will be found in the 

 sport they showed, which will be noticed in due course. I have no list 

 of them, none having been published whilst I was at Dunse, neither are 

 such things often published so early in the season, for reasons that are 

 obvious to all who follow hounds. Their kennel is about a mile from 

 the town, but various occupations prevented my seeing it. I believe it 

 is only a temporary one, but from the condition and general soundness 

 of the hounds I should imagine it to be healthy, which is worth all the 

 ornaments of architecture put together. The stables, made by Lord 

 Elcho, are in the town of Dunse, and afford every accommodation to a 

 numerous stud of hunters — the ten for his own riding, clippers. His 

 lordship's weight does not exceed twelve stone with his saddle, which 

 gives him great advantage ; and he is just now in the prime of life, which 

 a man ought to be to follow hounds, still more to hunt them four or five 

 days a week, in any country, and particularly in so deep and so strongly 

 fenced a one as Berwickshire is. 



Of Lord Saltoun I need say but little : 



*' For high and deathless is the name 

 Oil Ilougomont ! thy ruins claim ; 



