192 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



bolted and killed after having been not more than fifteen minutes on his 

 legs — but they were fifteen minutes of peril to him, for the pack were 

 never many yards from his brush. This was a capital scenting day. 



The duke rode to Edinburgh after the first run — nearer fifty than 

 forty miles — having a relay of hacks on the road, one of which I saw at 

 the inn at Carfrae-mill. 



Wilhamson did not please me by his operations at this drain. In the 

 first place, why bolt his fox at all? Surely his hounds could not have 

 wanted blood, and this fox might have shown him a clipper on some 

 future day. ** Murdering foxes," said Mr. Meynell, ** is a most absurd 

 prodigality, seasoned foxes are as necessary to sport as experienced 

 hounds;" and I am decidedly of his opinion. Then again he neither gave 

 his fox a chance for his life nor consequently his field a chance of a 

 gallop, as almost every hound was within ten yards of the drain when he 

 jumped out of it, apparently nothing the worse, and a good country was 

 before him. 



The method taken to bolt this fox reminds me of the fact of a fox 

 having been bolted out of a drain before these hounds the season before 

 last, by an expedient quite new I should imagine to all the sporting 

 world. Our fox was started from his hiding place by the means of a 

 long rail which reached more than half the length of the drain ; the 



other by means still more appalling to poor Charley 'j ears. The curricle 

 mail coming past the place at the moment, either Sir David Baird or 

 Mr. Campbell of Saddel — but I forget which — took the guard's horn 

 (one of unusual length) and putting it up to its mouth-piece in the drain, 



