100 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



how the thing was done ; and it was likewise a good day for hearing the 

 " gallant chiding" of the pack. 



We found a second fox in a cover called " the Doctor's-cover," which 

 soon met his death, owing to the impatience of one of the field to get a 

 start, by which he turned him into the hounds' mouths. I was rather 

 surprised at the gentleman in question doing so, because he has followed 

 hounds a great deal, and has the reputation of being a sportsman ; but 

 his conduct reminded me of a description Mr. Meynell gave of a similar 

 start with his hounds from a favourite cover in Leicestershire. " First,'* 

 said he, '' came the fox ; next, Cecil Forester; and then, my hounds !" 

 Lord Elcho bore the disappointment like a christian, a term which, on 

 all occasions, we may be allowed to synonymise with gentleman. We 

 found again, and, after a smart scurry over the country, whipped off at 

 dark in Dunse-wood. 



This was my last day with Lord Elcho's hounds, and for this reason : — 

 I had not a horse to ride without trespassing on the stables of my friends, 

 and found I had no chance of getting one from King, as the brute he 

 sent me in exchange for another brute which I sent back to him was 

 equal to about nine stone, on the road, and a cripple — in fact, with 

 anchylosed joints. What rendered this circumstance more mortifying 

 was, that, on the very day I left Dunse, which was on the morrow of 

 the last of which I have spoken, I missed a run which his lordship had 

 from Press, of an hour and twenty minutes, without what could be called 

 a check. Before I take my final leave of Dunse, however, I shall offer 

 a few remarks upon Berwickshire as a hunting country, as well as upon 

 the hounds that are now hunting it — confined, of course, to my short 

 experience of each. 



