NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 371 



much as locality has so much to do with the state of the surface of the 

 ground, as regards frost. At Burnside, fifteen miles distant, althougl? 

 further from the sea, there was on this morning very little sign of frost, 

 neither was there any worth speaking of at the place of meeting, and 

 Mr. Dalyell had a beautiful twenty-five minutes to ground.* 



The morning of this day was passed, as it usually is, in the house of a 

 sportsman in which sportsmen are assembled — first, with a lounge in 

 the stables; next a peep into the newspapers, and after luncheon a walk. 

 The walk however I dispensed with, not being provided with shoes equal 

 to resist snow w-ater, but I repented having so done, when I found that 

 the object of it had been to visit the famous promontory on the coast 

 called '* Red Head," mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in the Antiquary. 



Saturday, 7. Accompanied by the Arniston party. I hunted this 

 day with the celebrated harriers of Mr. Hay, of Latham Grange, (dis- 

 tant four miles), and we surprised the Laird at his breakfast, at the 

 refined hour of eleven, by which time his grandfather would have killed 

 his last hare, and been expecting the dinner bell. Previously to our 

 entering the house, however, I peeped between the palings at the pack. 

 " Surely," said I, " I know these hounds; they are Sir John Dashwood's 

 sort." Now 1 over-ran the scent here a little ; they are not exactly Sir 



* I received a lesson on this subject, wMcIi I am not likely to forget. On the day 

 on which the Warwicksliire hounds had the famous run from Epwell-house, im- 

 mortalized in song, my horse went to cover, but I did not go myself, because the 

 ground, where I slept the preceding night, bore the weight of the London waggon 

 in the morning, without receiving an impression from the wheels, and this in the 

 month of December. Now mark the sequel, — I slept in the Worcestershire vale, 

 my horse slept on the Oxfordshire hills ; and the cover where the hounds met, was 

 the highest ground of all, which, one would naturally suppose, would have been most 

 acted on by the frost, whereas it proved otherwise, and the hounds threw off at the 

 usual hour. They lay the night before at Edge-hill, which every one knows is 

 very high ground. 



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