104 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



run as the annals of hunting can produce, — from point to point, allowed to 

 be twenty miles in two hours, and never fairly off the scent ; with blood at 

 the finish. In sixteen days' hunting, they killed twenty-two foxes, and 

 ran three to ground ; and some time before the season ended, they had 

 tasted sixty-seven ! 



The present being the first season of Lord Elcho entering any young 

 hounds of his own breeding, will be one of more than common interest to 

 himself, and of anticipation to his friends. To himself, as the first trial of 

 his own blood, as well as of his success on the election of it; to his friends 

 as a test of his talent in the kennel, as well as judgment in the field. 

 I understood he had been rattling the covers of Dunse, Press, March- 

 mont, &c. previous to the beginning of the season, when there w^as a 

 great show of foxes, but cub-hunting doings should never be recorded on 

 paper. 



As a huntsman in the field my opinion of Lord Elcho being already 

 recorded, I would not touch on the subject again were it not to enforce 

 one point. All persons who have followed fox-hounds over various parts 

 of Great Britain, have been aware of the advantages and disadvantages 

 of the master of the pack and his huntsman standing well or ill with the 

 yeomen and farmers of their country. In a highly cultivated one, as 

 Berwickshire is, this is a point of the greatest moment as regards the 

 preservation of foxes, and I would hold out Lord Elcho as a pattern here. 

 Not only is he desirous that as little mischief as is possible should be done 

 by his field, but his kind and affable conduct towards all classes of per- 

 sons ensures him that regard which induces such as may sustain some 

 damage, to make light of it, whilst it fills his country with foxes. 



