HISTOEY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



romantic place, save one, that I ever saw a pack 

 of fox -hounds thrown into. In fact, it was a 

 place that appeared to me like a forlorn hope ; 

 but owing to a combination of circumstances, for 

 instance, an improvement in the day, and the 

 exertions of the men, . . . added to the steady 

 working of the hounds, our fox quitted this wild 

 ravine, and boldly faced the open country. But 

 I shall not soon forget the crossing of this ravine, 

 or the rocky bottomed brook that was roaring in 

 the hollow, or the narrow path by which we 

 gained the opposite side. The scene was really 

 an imposing one. The clatter of the horses' feet 

 among the stones, as they scrambled, as it were, 



' Up the margin of the lake, 

 Behveen the precipice and brake* 



with the cry of the hounds, beautifully re-echoed 

 from the deep and winding valley which was 

 below us, gave a wildness to the scene seldom 

 experienced in fox-hunting, and requiring an abler 

 pen than mine to describe. When once clear of 

 this awkward and perplexing defile, a good 

 country presented itself; the pack settled down 

 to their fox, and I thought we were in for a 

 second East Gordon clipper,^ as these out-of-the- 

 way-looking places generally produce those that 

 can fly for their lives. At the end of a mile 



^ Nimrod here refers to a run which the Duke of Buccleuch's Hounds 

 had had on 18th November 1834, from East Gordon in Berwickshire. 

 — Vide 'Northern Tour,' 1838, p. 79 et seq. 



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