NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR, 95 



society, the piece of plate lately presented to him, and purchased by the 

 subscription of seven thousand freeholders of the county of Haddington, 

 is the best testimonial ; as a soldier, his deeds and his wounds are his 

 best panegyric; and it remains for me only to allude to him as a sports- 

 man and a companion. In the first named character, he has long held 

 a high station, not only as a rider not to be beaten over a country by 

 any man, but as a superior judge of what hounds are doing ; and in 

 every country in which he has followed them, has left behind him the 

 reputation of combining the best properties of the horseman and the 

 sportsman. In proof of this, he was last year solicited to hunt the 

 Pytchly country (Northamptonshire) but preferred a lease of Melton 

 Lodge near Melton, for three years, where he took up his residence 

 during the latter part of last season. This is one of the most com- 

 plete sporting boxes perhaps in England, which may be accounted for by 

 the fact of its having been, for several years, the residence of the late 

 lamented Earl of Plymouth — that stanch supporter of the Quorn Hunt. 

 If my recollection does not fail me, there are stalls and boxes for nearly 

 thirty horses. 



Sir David Baird has been a frequent occasional resident in Leicester- 

 shire, and, as well as upon other occasions, his name appears in print, 

 in Mr. Campbell's song — to which I have before alluded — descriptive of 

 a fine run in that county, in which he is represented as sailing- along ''in 

 his pride of place," (as Shakespeare says of the falcon,) on his famous 

 horse Jemmy Hope. And there is on record an excellent anecdote of 

 this said Jemmy Hope, and this said Sir David Baird. He sold the 

 horse to a gentleman without selling the seat of the rider — a very 

 common case — and the following- was the result : — Sir David, having 

 the lead at the time, was floored on his back in a ditch, and, seeing 



