284 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



words. He has what the Greeks called the Trav ^(jjpov, the every gift for 

 such a calling — zeal, nerve, quickness, and talent. But quick as he is, 

 when quickness is desirable, no man hurries hounds less in their work ; 

 and when on a scent he seldom speaks to them at all. Although he is 

 — as every sportsman must be — of Mr. Beckford's opinion, that hounds 

 left entirely to themselves would seldom kill a fox, his system is, 

 ** Ware cast as long as you possibly can." lie says himself (vide his 

 epistle to Crane) he likes a burst of twenty minutes, but admires a 

 hunting run of an hour, which I am certain he does, for these lines of 

 his friend Nicolls are often in his mouth : — 



" Can tbe fox-hound ever tell, 

 Unless he takes the pains to smell 

 Where Revnard's crone ?" 



But a huntsman's science is not confined to the field, the foundation 

 of his success is in the kennel. There Lord Kintore could scarcely have 

 failed in one principal qualification — viz. the breeding of hounds of high 

 form, from his known correct eye to the good points of all domestic 

 animals, which he has shown practically to the world. From the 

 present limited extent of his pack, much cannot be expected from it as 

 contributing to the general diffusion of good fox-hound blood ; yet from 

 what 1 have seen of his proceedings, and have gathered from his dis- 

 course, I am inclined to think that if his lordship had been for the last 

 fifteen years hunting a four or five-days-a-week country, he would have 

 been a very considerable contributor to this most desirable end. Such I 

 know is the opinion of Mr. Dalyell, Williamson, Old Scott, and Walker, 

 and of many other experienced sportsmen in his part of the world, 

 whose authority is better than my own. A sight of his small pack, 



