2 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



indeed, it would be an act of black ingratitude were I not to endeavour 

 to make the only return I can make for the reception I met with in 

 Scotland, as acceptable as my ability will allow me. Neither do J 

 stop here. Simply to be remembered is no satisfaction ; it is a privilege 

 which vice as well as virtue can confer ; but the pleasing reflection which 

 I should draw, were I to indulge in the hope that the name of Nimrod 

 may be remembered in Scotland when he who assumes it shall be no 

 more, would arise from the wish that, with that name, one virtue should 

 be associated — a proper sense of feeling for the kindness and hospitality 

 he received in it. 



The circumstances that led to my <' Northern Tour" are as fol- 

 lows. All the sporting world know the Earl of Kintore, his social and 

 o'ood-humoured character, his warmth of friendship which knows no 

 bounds, and his enthusiastic love of fox-hunting which I should imagine 

 cannot well be exceeded. I became acquainted, with his lordship some 

 ten or twelve years back at Melton, and have since enjoyed his friend- 

 ship, and partaken of his benevolence. Now sympathy has been called 

 the mother of friendship— and justly so called, for the weight of sorrow 

 is broken by being divided, and no doubt my noble friend sympathized 

 with me in my present situation, deprived of the enjoyment of a sport he 

 is aware I love nearly as much as he loves it himself. One evening in 

 the month of September, 1834, then, I saw a tripple letter lying on my 

 table with the seal uppermost, the impression on which was a fox's head, 

 with the words " Floreat scientia" on the wreath that encircled it. 

 "A sportsman;'' said I to myself, and, turning the other side uppermost 

 espied " Kintore" in the corner. The purport of the letter was, to con- 

 vey to me the good wishes of his lordship for my future prospects in life, 

 and to tell me that he thought it might " put a spoke in my wheel" if I 



