58 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



lordship's pumps went into a footman's pocket, and Nimrod's into his 

 own. 



On the morning of this day (Tuesday) I was thus addressed by Lord 

 Elcho, "To-morrow," said his Lordship, " we are going into a good 

 country, and we shall have a run ; but it is a strongly fenced one, and 

 requires a hunter to get across it. I will send one to cover for you that 

 will carry you comfortably and well" — the whole of which prediction 

 was fulfilled to the very letter. The morrow came and appeared like 

 hunting. Some rain had fallen on the preceding evening, the wind was 

 in the west, and on looking out of my window, I perceived that things 

 looked well above — old Boreas asleep, and Phoebus where he should 

 always be on a hunting morning", not a beam of him to be seen. 



As is generally the case, I was the first of the Dunse party to make 

 my appearance in the breakfast room ; for having been all my life an 

 early riser at home, I cannot lie late in the morning when abroad ; but 

 when I opened the door, I found there had been an arrival in the per- 

 son of one whom I could not recollect ever to have before seen. His 

 figure was tall and thin, with a piercing but very intellectual eye; and, 

 independently of his being " stained with the variation of each soil," 

 which showed that he had been at work whilst I was asleep, and must 

 have ridden a long distance that morning, there was a freshness of 

 complexion, and a wiryness of frame about him which at once con- 

 vinced me he was a sportsman. " Surely," said I to myself, *' this is 

 Sir David Baird, of whom I have heard so much, but whom I have 

 never seen." Such it proved to be ; and as, where there is a sympathy 

 of thought and sentiment, noble souls make acquaintance at first sight, 

 so do sportsmen, and we soon became known to each other. He had 



