NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 61 



assemblage of sportsmen accompanied the hounds from Dunse, and 

 Lady Kirk, in itself, being a very uncertain place of showing sport, it 

 was proposed to Lord Elcho that a small spiny, as it is called in Leices- 

 tershire, by the side of the road, and five miles short of the place ap- 

 pointed, should be drawn, en passant. His lordship for this once con- 

 sented, and mark the result. A Lady Kirk fox jumped up before the 

 hounds, in the twinkling of an eye, putting his head as straight for 

 home as the most hungry pigeon could fly ; and a most severe burst, 

 over a most severe country, was the consequence. Now who saw the 

 finish ? I can only say I myself did not ; nor indeed could I learn who 

 did. I was well with them for the first ten minutes, when we came to 

 some rails and a brook, which stopped the whole field. " Dont go 

 there;" cried Lord Elcho to me, " you'll be smothered; (it was a bog) 

 here's a pass to the left." So by some going to the left, and some to 

 the right — where there was also a pass — whilst the hounds went 

 straight, no small advantage was gained by them, not only over the 

 horses but also over their fox, and the pace appeared to bid defiance 

 to catching them. At all events, my chance was soon out. About a 

 mile further on, we came to a fence of this description, but which I 

 found to be by no means an unusual one in Scotland ; there was a ditch 

 on the rising side, as also on the landing side, which was a good stoned 

 road. But to enable a horse to leap the second ditch, he had to land 

 himself upon a stone wall, from, whence he was to receive the fulcrum. 

 " Now for a fractured skull or a broken thigh, five hundred miles from 

 home," said 1 to myself, as I perceived the horse that went before me 

 put his hinder foot on a sort of stepping stone from whence his fulcrum 

 was derived ; " by heavens I'll look for a better place." In short, I 

 funked it. Keepsake* was very indignant at my not letting him go; 



* Tlie name of the horse. 



