70 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



lover of the sport, but is a young master of hounds, this being his second 

 season. 



" How do you like my hounds ?" said the Major to me, after the usual 

 salutation. *' I'll tell you presently," was my reply ; the fact was, their 

 backs were up and their sterns were down from the severity of the 

 morning, and they did not look to advantage ; " but this I can tell you 

 at once — your condition appears admirable.'' The gallant master and 

 huntsman — for he hunts them himself — appeared much pleased by this 

 remark, for he told me it was a point upon which he prided himself; 

 and as I shall presently have an opportunity of showing, I was myself 

 gratified at having made it, because it proved to be a good hit. There 

 was only a small field, but amongst them Lord Frederick Fitzclarence, 

 who resides in the neighbourhood of the kennel, at a seat of his brother- 

 in-law, Lord Kelburne, and is a very regular attendant of the Galewood 

 pack. 



The Greeks had their oracles, the Romans their augurs, all the world 

 their omens, and I now and then have mine. '* We shall have sport to- 

 day," said I to myself, as I put a crooked sixpence into my pocket, — a 

 thing I had not seen for many a long day — after I had mounted my 

 horse, and especially as he gave a loud neigh at the moment, which 

 Tacitus, when speaking of the ancient Germans, says, " was considered 

 so portentous as to be watched by kings and priests." 



The omens, however, were this day unpropitious, and even our start 

 was a bad one. We were holloaed to the top of a hill where we were 

 told the " tod" — as a fox in Scotland is called by the people— was just 

 seen ; but I was soon convinced there had been no *' tod" there, and told 



