1 90 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



killed in the village of Greenlaw, having laid down in the minister's 

 garden. The powers of these animals, however, as well of the fox- 

 hound, were displayed on this occasion. On jumping up in view, in the 

 garden, he crossed the road and sprang at a wall certainly not less than 

 eight feet in height, the top of which he succeeded in gaining as also did 

 one of the hounds. It was the most extraordinary feat of this descrip- 

 tion I ever beheld, but it availed him nothing, as he was pulled down by 

 the pack in the very next field. 



I witnessed a ludicrous scene on the first breaking cover by this fox. 

 Having an eye to Williamson, I followed him to a gate out of the road, 

 which led into the field over which the pack were streaming away, with 

 apparently a breast-high scent, and which gate the duke was in the act 

 of opening. " Will it do, your Grace ? Can we get across it?" I could 

 hear Williamson say, in somewhat a doubtful tone. " We'll try it," 

 replied the duke, and away we went to the number of about half a dozen, 

 all the rest of this large field having branched off to the right or to the 

 left of the line in which the chase lay. This " it" proved to be a black 

 bog, about twenty yards in width, which I was afterwards given to under- 

 stand had never before been crossed by horsemen, at all events not in the 

 winter months. The duke and his huntsman, however, got through it 

 without being dismounted, but such was not my case, nor that of Frank 

 CoUison, who preceded me, by reason of our being obliged to go a few 

 yards to the left of the spot over which our leaders had passed. But the 

 reason for this was rather an extraordinary one. Four heavy cart colts, 

 alarmed by the cry of the pack, rushed headlong — although approaching 

 it from the opposite direction — into the pass which we were about to 

 attempt, and all fell down together in a cluster, one sticking by the 

 hinder quarters, another with his head in the bog, and one struggling 



