NIMROD'S NOllTllERN TOUR. 295 



Tuesday, Dec. 23. It being dusk as well as dinner time when we 

 approached the house on the preceding evening, it was only on the 

 morning of this day that J saw the Gask stable-yard, which f was rather 

 anxious to see, anticipating something good from knowing under whose 

 direction it had been arranged. '' Whence thisV said I to his lordship, 

 as I cast my eyes upwards to a picture of hounds running into their 

 fox, which was hung against the wall, over the door-porch. " Why," 

 replied he, " I saw that picture hung out as a sign over the door of a public 

 house in Morpeth, and 1 got the guard of the mail to purchase it for 

 me." " Truly characteristic," muttered I to myself, as I walked for- 

 wards to the stables; and, really, the picture is worth the place it occu- 

 pies, being a very fair representation of this exhilirating scene. But 

 the stables — how did I find them occupied ? Was the " non sum qualis 

 eram' evident at first sight ? Yes, for there was no Bolivar there ; no 

 Provincial ; no White Stockings ; but there were twelve or fourteen 

 very serviceable hunters, the greater part of them, particularly those for 

 his lordship's own riding, the same as had been with the hounds in 

 Berkshire, and perhaps none the better for the many hot shirts they 

 had had there. The stables are as good as need be ; the condition of 

 the horses was excellent, and this can easily be accounted for. Lord 

 Kintore gives them every chance to be so ; he summers them well, and 

 they are in the hands of a most valuable servant, William Mollison 

 (commonly called Willie), who has been brought up in his stables, and, 

 from the lessons of that best of all teachers, experience, is become a 

 perfect master of his business. Nor is this all ; he has not only plenty 

 of hands, but plenty of strength in his stables, for Lord Kintore adopts 

 a plan which, though not generally adopted, it is to be wished were 

 adopted oftener than it is, with those who can conveniently afford it. 

 He does not disf}iiss his helpers in the summer months; by which 



