300 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



better for a few more judiciously placed gorse covers, as here and there 

 they lie wide. 



To sum up all— I consider the Turriff country to be one in which 

 more enjoyment of hounds may be had than in any other that I saw in 

 Scotland ; for, from the nature of it, it holds a good scent; and, barring 

 now and then a brook, a large fence is a rara avis in it. In every 

 respect it is favourable to hounds ; and were I master of a pack, I should 

 much prefer hunting it to either the New Forest, or indeed any other 

 part of Hampshire, or the far-famed Craven country, in Berkshire, 

 which Mr. Warde used to say, he was " condemned to hunt, for his 

 sins." It is however a narrow country ; being bounded by hills on one 

 side, and the Atlantic-ocean on the other ; and without assistance from 

 the Keith-hall and Buchan countries, would not stand three days a week 

 on the average of seasons. As it is, however. Lord Kintore generally 

 kills his twenty brace of foxes in the season, which, considering he is 

 under the necessity of making short ones, and must frequently be inter- 

 rupted by weather in that high latitude— parallel, I believe, with Peters- 

 burgh — is what I call giving a very good account of them. Be it 

 recollected, that thirty-six brace was the average number of noses on 

 the door, in the best of Mr. Meynell's days, in the Quorn country — viz, 

 from the commencement of the season of 1791 to the conclusion of that 

 of 1796. 



It is hardly necessary to repeat, that Lord Kintore hunts his own 

 hounds, assisted by two whippers-in, exclusive of the man that rides his 

 second horse, who of course is useful to him at times. His first whip is 

 my old acquaintance, Joe Grant, and a capital sportsman he is. He 

 came to his lordship, with the hounds he purchased of Mr. Nicoll, by 

 whom Joe was educated, and it may be recollected that I have already 



