96 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



Jemmy Hope leap over him, with nothing on his back but his saddle, 

 and go straight to the hounds, coolly exclaimed, " There he goes, he 

 would always he with them if they would let him.'' 



As a companion Sir David has been well drilled ; for, as has been 

 truly said. 



" To give a youug man a good education, 



The army's the very best school in the nation ;" 



and the circle in which he has since moved always ensures the finish. 



Thursday, the 20th. Met the Duke of Buccleuch's hounds at the 

 Hirsel. A very large field — his Grace himself among the crowd, to 

 whom 1 had the honour of making my bow. We made a bad start, mob- 

 bing and killing a fox in a large whin cover. Found again, the hounds 

 getting well away with him, and, crossing the road just under my horse's 

 nose, I got a good start on one of King's horses. Luckily, however, for 

 me we checked at the end of six fields, for it was " bellows to mend" 

 with my nag. But of all the deep countries 1 ever rode across, none 

 ever came up to this. In fact it was perfectly rotten, and two or three 

 of us were nearly stuck fast in the middle of a loose gravelly turnip field. 

 The ditches, too, were after the order of double-bodied graves, and very 

 inviting to a blown horse. Mr. M' Kenzie Grieve, indeed, contrived to 

 get tv/o falls in these six fields ; but when he passed by me at the rate 

 of twenty miles in the hour, in very deep ground, I could not avoid 

 exclaiming to him — " 'Tis the pace that kills." 



Our fox, it appeared, had turned short back into the cover, where we 



