HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



to please the eye of a nice observer of form and 

 points. It is evident, indeed, that in the breeding 

 and the drafting of them, appearances have not 

 been allowed to preponderate much in the scales. 

 There are some coarse hounds among them ; never- 

 theless they are a very business-like looking pack, 

 taken as a whole, and the character they bear is 

 highly creditable to them. It is indeed from char- 

 acter, from report chiefly, that I am enabled to 

 speak of their performances ; for, with the excep- 

 tion of the finish to the first day's run, no circum- 

 stances could be more untoward than those under 

 which it was my ill-fortune to see them." ^ 



Of Scott, whom he describes as " rather over- 

 topped, but not looking much amiss in his saddle, 

 with a ruddy, but healthy-looking face, and some- 

 what of an intellectual eye," Nimrod says " his 

 condition I thought good ; but it is in the kennel 

 that he is considered to shine. As a huntsman 

 he labours under disadvantages — not those of age, 

 for although he has the honourable appellation of 

 ' Old Scott,' there is nothing against him on that 

 score. But no man of his form can ride forward 

 enough to see hounds in all their work, over any 

 country that I have yet seen, much less over his, 

 which is strongly fenced and deep. . . . Scott's 

 long experience and general knowledge of hounds 

 and hunting, make him often quoted in Scotland 

 as authority ; and, moreover, he has been the theme 

 of many a good joke. In short, he is what is called 



1 'Northern Tour,' 1838, p. 223. 



132 



