NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 227 



shown by the number and rank of the several candidates. It un- 

 doubtedly towers far above all other hunting or racing clubs, perhaps i 

 may venture to say, in Europe. The annual autumn meeting is held 

 (having been first fixed upon by ballot) at different places in Scotland, 

 when, as all your readers know, there is much excellent racing, and 

 where the fox-hounds of the county attend. It was last year at Ayr, 

 where those of Lord Kelburne attended ; and, as I was informed by a friend 

 who partook of it, showed some very good sport — *' unusually good, 

 indeed," — were his words — " for that time of the year." 



Like the fablers of antiquity, I wander from country to country ; but, 



unlike them, I state nothing that I do not know, or have good reason to 



believe, to be true. I have already mentioned, that the result of my 



meeting Mr. Whyte Melville, at Chester-hall, was an invitation to his 



house in Fife, for the purpose of seeing the Fife-hounds ; and I was also 



given to understand, that there were other houses in his neighbourhood 



whose doors would be open to receive me — amongst them that of Sir 



Ralph Anstruther, Bart., of Balcaskie, represented to me as just the sort 



of person I should like to visit — the well-bred, but unaffected country 



gentleman and sportsman, and keeping what is called an excellent house, 



in other words, a good larder and a good cook. But my first start from 



Edinburgh was to Mount Melville, and having sent my servant and 



horses forward on the Tuesday, I found myself on the morning of 



Wednesday (10th) seated, cum multis aliis, in a one-horse omnibus, a 



sort of " cruelty drag," which conveys passengers to the quay from 



which the Largo steam boat starts, that being the route marked out 



for me, and where I had appointed to meet Mr. Earle, who was also 



booked for Mount Melville. 



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