NLAIROD'S NORTHERN TOUR, 103 



once more to Dunse. On the 30th of March they quit the Dunse kennel 

 for tlie home one, and finish the season in East Lothian. 



Of Lord Elcho's hounds it would be unnecessary for me to give an 

 opinion, were it not for the wish to have it recorded in your pages, 

 for it is merely the echo of that which passes current from one end of 

 Scotland to the other — namely, that, making only a reasonable allowance 

 for the short time they had been together, they more than answered 

 every sportsman's expectations of them ; and this is not saying all that has 

 been said in favour of them. Nevertheless, candour, based on experience, 

 and a wish to avoid the imputation of bestowing praise beyond desert, 

 calls upon me to exclaim — " Surely his lordship must have been highly 

 favoured in his purchase of drafts, as it is well known he commenced 

 with a pinch out of every man's box !" I can with truth assert, that no 

 pack need be steadier than this pack was every day I was out with them, 

 and I more than once asked myself the question : — For what reason could 

 some individual hounds he drafted ? as they appeared to me to unite all 

 the qualities we require in hounds ! " Wait five years," said a brother 

 sportsman to me one day, as I was offering a remark somewhat to this 

 effect. Verbum sat. 



But as I have before observed, the test of hounds is sport. I am able 

 then to report the proceedings of this young pack last season in the field, 

 which I derived from a source on which I can rely. Previously to my visit 

 to Dunse, they had had what is called " a capital October," killing 

 several old foxes, after good runs. During my visit, they had quite 

 average sport, with one fine run. Up to January the 1st they had killed 

 twenty-four brace of foxes, including one fox which showed as splendid a 



