NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 367 



appreciate the effect on his, or on any other master of hounds' temper, 

 which an incident of this sort would produce. Galloping up towards the 

 spot where the culprits stood, the first question he put was, " Who 

 holloaed?" ** It was not Nimrod" for the credit of Nimrod I felt my- 

 self bound to say; and that was all that was said. The fact is, this was 

 one of the numerous instances I have witnessed, not only of men calling 

 themselves sportsmen, but of good sportsmen, — which both these offend- 

 ers were, and much esteemed friends of Mr. Dalyell's, — so frequently 

 not paying the smallest attention to what hounds are doing, except 

 when they are running over the open, at the rate of twenty miles in the 

 hour. As for myself, I had been for some time *' on thorns," for the 

 vexation my friend was enduring at this untoward event, the effect, as 

 stated, of accident; and I must say, I was astonished at hearing the 

 holloas given, when the riot approached us nearer. However, on a 

 subsequent admission of the fact, all was right again. But it occasioned 

 a good hour's work to Mr. Dalyell and his men, to get the whole pack 

 out of cover again, after the cheering holloas by which they had been 

 encouraged to do wrong. I rode Jack Orville, again, this day, one of 

 the cleverest of Mr. Dalyell's stud, and often ridden by his lady. This 

 circumstance, added to the fact of Walker, the Fife huntsman, being out, 

 increased the mortification experienced by a bad day's sport. 



After hunting, Sir Ralph Anstruther, Mr. Dalyell, Mr. Earle, and 

 myself, crossed the Tay, and went to Mount Melville to dinner, — 



" So excellent a lodging nigh, 

 "Who in his senses would pass by ?" — 



and met the Fife on the morrow, at a favourite cover called Scoonie-hill, 

 where our Forfarshire ill-luck followed us. Our very patience, indeed, 

 was put to the test by the various disappointments we endured. First, 



