262 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



Nothing can be more elegant than the gait of an English fox-hound 

 when cast in a perfect mould. 



Mr. Lambton chiefly breeds from his own blood ; but where he 

 has gone from home for crosses, he has shewn his judgment in 

 selecting such hounds as the Duke of Beaufort's Lexicon, Lord 

 Middleton's Denmark and Vanguard, Mr. Osbaldeston's Ealleywood 

 and Palafox, the Cheshire Mandate, Lord Lonsdale's Wonder, Lord 

 Darlington's Cruiser, and Mr. Ward's Jasper — the old New Forest 

 blood, that scarcely ever fails. 



In our ride this day Mr. Lambton took me to the house of a 

 celebrated old sportsman in this part of the world, and one of that 

 respectable and once happy class of beings called English yeomen. 

 Sir Walter Scott calls them 



" England's peculiar and appropriate sons, 

 Known in no other land ; " 



and John Burrell is as gcod a sample as the Poet could have found. 

 For aught I know he might have had him in his eye when he 

 wrote, 



" Each boasts his hearth 



And field, as free as the best lord his barony ; 



Owing subjection to no human vassalage 



Save to their king and law ; " 



for there was an air of honest independence about John Burrell that 

 made a deep impression upon me : and when he went up to the 

 Hon. Captain Dundas, shook him heartily by the hand, and, "in 

 the full dialect of his nation," asked him hoiv all his friends in York- 

 shire tvere ? I thought I saw something like a resurrection of old 

 English manners. There was a warmth of feeling in his address 

 and language so different to the cold-blooded greetings of the 

 present day that was quite to my taste ; and I was sorry to hear 

 him dechne the honour of dining at the Club, for I am sure I should 

 have had a treat. Independent of waiting till seven o'clock for his 

 dinner, Mr. Burrell told me he was got too old for such company 

 — adding, with a strong emphasis, that he had a great regard for the 

 gentlemen of the Hunt, who had been very kind to him. 



Lovers feed upon hopes, and so at times do fox-hunters. We 



