NIMROD'S SECOND TOUR, 



embkacing accounts of 



The Wakwickshire Hounds, under Mr. Hay, 



Mr. Boycott's, 



The Shropshire, under Sir Bellingham Graham, 



The Cheshire, under Sir Henry Main waring, 



Sir Eichard Puleston's, 



The Northamptonshire, under Mr. Musters. 



On Sunday the 4th of December 1825 I reached Oxford, but, from 

 the inclement state of the weather, had no hunting till the following 

 Friday, when I met the Duke of Beaufort's hounds at Heythorpe. 

 This is the place to see this distinguished pack. It is their home ; 

 and they come out of their kennel with a sort of lap-dog brightness 

 on their skins which is scarcely to be met with in any other hounds. 

 To a lover of hounds the sight is quite enchanting ; and the 

 venerable though sporting appearance of their huntsman, Philip 

 Payne, adds much to the etiect. From his Grace himself, indeed, 

 to the second whipper-in, there is something particularly in character 

 in this first-rate establishment. The Duke looks like a Duke ; and 

 his servants are the most civil, cleanly, and well-ordered, in their 

 respective situations that have ever come under my observation. 

 Will Long, the first whipper-in, is quite perfect ; and a man must be 

 fastidious who can find any fault in the second. 



Heythorpe — as I suppose, from being a large domain — is not a 

 favourite fixture, but I consider it by no means a bad place to see 

 hounds. In the first place it is a certain find every hour in the day, 

 and with a good scent there is nothing to enable a fox to put hounds 

 at defiance : if he flies, he has some distance to go before he can 



