382 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



the glorious sequel ! We all succeeded in what we attempted ; and a 

 most brilliant half hour — forty-one minutes in all — with blood at the end, 

 was the result. The finish was indescribably fine. The pack, in a 

 body, ran into him on the banks of the Doveran river, just as he was on 

 the point of crossing it, and I had the pleasure of being within twenty 

 yards of him when he died, having been capitally carried by a mare 

 Lord Kintore calls '' Walkefs mare,'' so called because purchased from 

 the trump of that name, who hunts the Fife hounds. The brush was 

 given to me, and is now in my view, with this label appended to it : — 

 ** Forty-one minutes with Lord Kintore's hounds, in the Turriff country ; 

 very best pace, from first to last, with only one trifling check, and no 

 cast." 



Good as was the finish of the morning's sport, that of the evening was 

 not readily to be beat. We all dined with Mr. Leslie, where we met 

 a party of brother-sportsmen ; and another peep into the Gask hunting 

 book affords me an extract which best illustrates my meaning ; — " The 

 finish was to a wish, on the banks of the river Doveran — well earned 

 blood in forty minutes. Dined at Dunlugas, with the honest-hearted 

 Scotch squire. The pack hunted well and jovially together, and we 

 passed a real good old-fashioned fox-hunting night." To me, however, this 

 was a new-fashioned fox-hunting night, for I did what I never did in my 

 life before — I tumbled down in the drawing-room. But what of that ? 

 It only proves the truth of Jock Proctor's remark, that I am '* na mon 

 for Scotland," in one respect. 



Tuesday 17th. Lord Kintore, the captain, and myself, dined this day 

 at Dalgety, the seat of the Hon. General Sir A. Duff, brother 

 to the Earl of Fife, who did us the honour to come from Duff-house 



