420 NTMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



not let her do so, and by holding her hard, occasioned what I have de- 

 scribed. 



On Friday 22nd. — 1 arrived at Merton House, in the county of Dur- 

 ham, the residence of that " acme of a sportsman and a gentleman," as 

 Lord Kintore calls him, Mr. Ralph Lambton, to whom I had signified 

 my intention of visiting him, on my return towards the South, and I am 

 happy to say, I found him in excellent health and spirits. Neither was 

 I long in his presence before he put me on horseback, and we rode to 

 the kennel, which is situated in the park of his nephew the Earl of 

 Durham. Fenwick, the feeder, instantly recognised me, as also did 

 Bob Hunnum the first whip, whom we met in the park, and in a situa- 

 tion, which, as Mr. Lambton allowed, would have just suited Frank 

 Grant, as a study for a sketch of a whipper-in, on a non-hunting day. 

 As for Bob himself, and the puppies he had in the panniers,* I consider 

 them to have been above all price ; the heads of the two beautiful 

 little animals, with their coal black eyes, tanned brown, and velvet-like 

 ears, which were to be seen peeping out of the panniers and nodding 

 to the step of the old pony, little conscious of the value their owner set 

 upon them — what a beautiful sketch, I say, might have been made of 

 them ! All young animals, or nearly all, come under the denomination 

 of pretty y but there is something in a young fox-hound of this age, 

 which is worthy a more significant epithet. 



The pack had been fed previous to our arrival at the kennel — be it 

 remembered these hounds eat no flesh the day before they hunt,— but 

 we accompanied them in their usual walk afterwards, and they struck 



* He was taking a lot of puppies to their walks. 



