256 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



for the blessings Crane bestowed upon him. The second, well bred 

 for the situation, being a son of Smith the celebrated Brocklesby hunts- 

 man {Lord Yarborough's) , has since left him. It was young days with 

 him when I was in Fife, and unfortunately for human nature, judgment 

 ripens slowly; but I liked what I saw of his performance, and there 

 appeared to be nothing like riot about him. He must mind what he is 

 at, however, for when I saw him in the kennel, I thought his jacket and 

 breeches were a tight fit. I fear he will get heavy, which I should 

 regret, being of opinion that some day or other he will signalize himself 

 as a sportsman. I was given to understand, that his father only placed 

 him under Walker by way of entering him to hounds, as the term is ; 

 and he could not well have chosen abetter preceptor for him. He would 

 teach him to be quick and decisive; and when experience and good 

 judgment are united to quickness and prompt decision, a huntsman may 

 be said to have arrived at a point very near to perfection. 



Saturday 13th. From my visit to the kennel at Cupar, I proceeded 

 to Balcaskie, where my friends from Mount Melville were engaged to 

 meet me, and moreover the next morning's fixture was one of Sir 

 Ralph Anstruther's covers. The house of Balcaskie is one of appa- 

 rently very considerable antiquity — although replete with every comfort 

 — having the gothic window, the tower-like staircase, and the flo.wer 

 garden, laid out in handsome parterres, divided by well trimmed yew 

 hedges, after the fashion of our fore-fathers, with the advantage of a 

 beautiful terrace the entire length of the house, which overlooks the 

 whole, furnishing to the eye a most agreeable prospect. And as if it 

 were in keeping with this old fashioned mansion, its yew hedges, its 

 gothic windows, and its tower-like staircase, there is to be seen at Bal- 

 caskie a very good fashion to which I would reluctantly apply the epithet 



