NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 373 



Cotswold hills, which was said to have been one mile more. This how- 

 ever, was over a much more open country than Mr. Hay's run, with not 

 a hedge-row in it, being- all enclosed by walls.* 



But now to the business of the day. Luck was against us in the 

 morning. We had only one very sharp thing against a very sharp wind, 

 and killed ; but we had a very good finish to it over Mr. Hay's mahogany 

 in the evening, as our friends from Arniston remained to dine, and I 

 took up my quarters at the Grange, for the two succeeding days. Mr. 

 Hay mounts himself and his huntsman right well, and I was pleased at 

 finding his favourite hunter to be my namesake, Nimrod. His hunts- 

 man, whose name is Lawry, formerly lived with Mr. Murray of 

 Abercairney, — (or " with Abercairney ,^' I should have said, for the 

 word *' Mr." is not allowable in the mention of a Highland chief) — is a 

 good man in his line, and a capital horseman. Mr. Hay, indeed, showed 

 me one timber fence that he rode over with his hounds, the drop to 

 which could not have been less than eight feet. 



Sunday, 8. The Arniston party, the late laird of Brigton, and 

 Mr. Dalyell, were to have dined at the Grange this evening, where an 

 excellent dinner, and covers for nine, were prepared, but such was the 

 dreadful state of the weather, that Mr. Hay and I had it all to ourselves 

 — my host very much amusing me with some anecdotes of his neigh- 

 bour and friend, Lord Panmure, in his sporting days, which caused me 

 to lament that those days were over with his lordship. 



* Sportsmen, who have long- hunted a country, are pretty accurate judges of distance 

 from point to point. It will be recollected, that I gave an account of an extraordinary 

 run a few years back, which I saw with the Vine hounds, stating the point-blank 

 distance to have been seventeen miles. My information on this head was gathered 

 from some of the oldest sportsmen in the hunt, and on the ground being afterwards 

 measured by the ordnance map, it proved to be seventeen miles and a half ! 



