208 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



breakfast, 1 mounted my hack and returned to my quarters at Chester- 

 hall; and with a tinge on my mind that, unless deprived of recollection, 

 can never be effaced. It was my first visit to a Scotch family, and to one 

 of which, having' heard and read so much, I had almost made myself 

 believe I was already acquainted with. I had also the satisfaction of 

 knowing that I had made acquaintance oi one of the first sportsmen in 

 all Scotland^ and from the pressing invitation to repeat my visit, of 

 indulging in the hope that that acquaintance was likely to be continued. 



On my arrival at Chester-hall, I found a letter from Mr. Ramsay of 

 Burnton, the master of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire fox-hounds, 

 which, besides others, hunt the West-Lothian country, considered the 

 best in Scotland. It was dated from Calder-house, the seat of Lord 

 Torphichen, who is father to his lady, and contained the agreeable 

 intimation, that he should be happy to show me his hounds, and mount 

 me, — naming the following Saturday, as a fair fixture and a sure find ; 

 and saying that a horse should be at the cover for me. On the follow- 

 ing day then — Friday, December 5th — I took my departure for 

 Edinburgh, accompanied by Captain Keith, and took up my abode at 

 Douglas's Hotel in St. Andrew's Square — the Fenton's of Edinburgh. 

 This I did at the suggestion of Lord Kintore, who, knowing I should be 

 only a few days in the Metropolis — for these swell hotels, as John Warde 

 said of the Pytchley-hunt dinners, when he hunted Northamptonshire, 

 are " all very well but the reckoning" — wished me to have a taste of 

 this house, which he assured me is the best he ever broke bread in, in 

 any part of the world, and 1 can fully confirm his encomium. 



I had not been long in Edinburgh before I called upon Messrs. 

 Blackwood, the celebrated publishers of George-street, and arrived at a 



