270 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



It might be invidious in me to state who got to the end of this run, 

 and who did not. The master of the pack, upon Beanstalk, went 

 gallantly to the death, and it would be ungenerous to deny him his 

 place. Ben Ord was also there ; Captain Beville, of the 95th, from 

 Sunderland barracks, kept his place to the end. Billy Williamson 

 went like a good 07ie for the first half hour, when his mare broke 

 down, and we lost him. He will excuse me for expressing a doubt 

 whether, if this had not happened, he would have got to the end of 

 this run. I think it was beyond the period which nature, however 

 good, could resist crying " enough " with his style of riding ; for, as 

 a Durham farmer says of him, " Nought but an iron horse can carry 

 him along." There was a gentleman-farmer also on a grey mare 

 that I thought would " call out for mamma," if he continued cram- 

 ming her along at the pace he was going. I cheered him at the 

 second check, and told him she was a good one ; but she was not 

 good enough for this day, and was not to be seen at the end. 



There was a hard-riding young one — Mr. Hurt, from Derbyshire — 

 who tried his best to see this fox killed, but all would not do. Although 

 I offered him assistance towards the latter end, I rather enjoyed 

 seeing him reduced to a walk, as he had been very impatient to see, 

 lohat he called, a run, and seemed rather to doubt whether the 

 country could produce one. If, however, he was not satisfied with 

 this day's sport, I am sure his broion mare zvas, and I fear she was 

 not worth much afterwards. This is the worst part of the story : 

 such a run as this is certain to produce suffering amongst horses — 

 chiefly, however, because people will ride them when they are not 

 fit to go — and I am sorry to say several did not recover the effects 

 of this tickler. Captain Dundas' horse died, which I very much 

 regretted, as he had ridden gallantly through the chase, and several 

 more were at death's door. 



I do not recollect that I ever asked for a brush in my life ; but on 

 this occasion — so far from home— I wished to possess some attribute 

 of victory ; so requested a pad of this gallant fox. I have had it put 

 into a small glass case, with the following inscription on the out- 

 side : — 



" This fox jumped up on the 12th of December, 1826, in Elstob 

 whin, before Mr. Ealph Lambton's hounds, just on the line of their 



