134 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



with hi3 hand raised in the air, calls to his field to ''Stand Still." 

 He is not at all in a hurry ; I never saw him refuse to give his hounds a 

 chance, so long- as a chance remained ; but I saw two instances of his 

 taking them to their fox in a very superior manner, when, but for him, 

 he would have been lost. One was by a cast short back, and the other 

 forward, to a drain, each of which will be noticed as they occurred. His 

 voice is not good, but, as somebody said, ** it is as God made it," and 

 therefore it would be wrong to find fault with it; and although one or 

 two of his holloas are not very intelligible to strangers, they are well 

 understood by his hounds, and that is their chief use. Strange to say, 

 he is the only Scotch servant hunting hounds in Scotland, or anywhere 

 else that I know of, a circumstance on which he prides himself, and he 

 may be allowed to do so. 



I have before spoken of the lengthened experience of this celebrated 

 huntsman, and there are few practical operations in which that valuable 

 accomplishment is more required than in that of hunting hounds. But, 

 as Byron says, 



" A man must serve his time to every trade 

 Save censure, — critics all are ready made." 



Williamson was fourteen years whipper-in, and ten huntsman, under old 

 Mr. Baird, and commenced as whipper-in under the renowned John 

 King who was huntsman to the two masters, — the late Duke of Buc- 

 cleuch and Mr. Baird — for thirty years. — He married King's daughter, 

 and cherishes his maxims as he cherishes his wife, — and 1 believe no 

 man makes a kinder husband than he does. He, however, told me a 

 good story of himself and King. Having one day, when in his noviciate, 

 some difficulty in getting some tail hounds out of cover, after the body 



