NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 91 



we had a splitter in the afternoon that would have satisfied Lord M' Do- 

 nald for pace. We found our fox in the plantations inside Lady Kirk- 

 park, and he put his head straight for the Hirsel, a cover of the 

 duke's, just five miles distant, which five miles were travelled over in 

 somewhat about three times as many minutes. In fact I am at a loss to 

 name a quicker thing for the last twenty years ; so fast, indeed, that 

 with the exception of the first whipper-in, who was outside the park when 

 the fox slipped away, no one man lived with the hounds. Sir David 

 Baird and Mr. M' Kenzie Grieve caught thera just as they entered the 

 Hirsel, where, as the duke was to meet there on the morrow, they were 

 of course immediately stopped. The country was sound, with large fields 

 and a good deal of grass, and well adapted to the ultra pace. Sir David 

 Baird rode to Edinburgh after this run — full fifty miles. I may here 

 mention, what I omitted in its proper place, that on the 17th our dinner 

 party, at the White Swan, consisted only of Sir David, Lord Saltoun, 

 and myself. Never having- before spent an evening with two Waterloo 

 officers of note, it was natural that I should ask them some questions, 

 and among-st others how each of them had escaped in the fray. Lord 

 Saltoun, it appeared, amongst the hundreds that fell around him, was 

 untouched ; but Sir David was less fortunate. He received a bullet in 

 his mouth, which, after carrying away a few teeth, found its way into 

 his throat and lodged there. Fortunately, it was extracted without leav- 

 ing its marks externally, although the force of a dozen more grains of 

 powder would have been fatal. " But were you never wounded ?" said 

 I to the Hero of Hugomont. " Knocked down once," replied his lordship, 

 ** by a spent ball, but not much hurt. My sergeant, however, thinking 

 I was killed, cried out—" There goes my lord, he has got it at last.'* 

 ** And pray, my lord," resumed I, *' what did you say to your sergeant?" 



" Not yet,** was the short, but soldier like, reply. And this reply 



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