290 NIMROD S HUNTING TOUR 



divides the counties of York and Durham. As it was, I was too 

 late for dinner ; but I at one time despaired of getting to my friend 

 at all, and by a circumstance worth naming. 



The distance from Darlington (which I passed through) to Yarm 

 is five miles, for which I allowed myself somewhat about half an 

 hour, the road being none of the best, but I did not reach it under 

 an hour. The delay arose from my meeting something, which I 

 could only compare to a moving hell. Excuse my profaneness — if 

 such it can be called — for I cannot find any other simile. This 

 turned out to be a locomotive steam-engine, which, running parallel 

 with and close to the road, so alarmed my hack, that it was in vain 

 that I tried to make him face it. This, however, is not to be 

 wondered at ; for a horse is naturally a timid animal, and this 

 machine was enough to alarm the Devil himself, if he had met 

 with it, as my horse did, out of his own country. The night was 

 dark, which increased the terrors of it : and it really was a frightful 

 object. The noise of the wheels — perhaps twenty pairs — the work- 

 ing of the engine, the blazing fires of blue and yellow hues, the 

 hissing of the steam, and the black-faced wretches, with their red 

 lips and white teeth, running to and fro, all conspired to heighten 

 the resemblance, and my astonishment increased the more when I 

 reflected on such a nuisance as this being suffered so close to a 

 turnpike road. The only way in which I got past it at last was 

 to get my horse into a hole, with his tail towards the machine, but I 

 never saw an animal so alarmed. 



On Friday morning, Mr. Flounders accompanied me to Croft 

 Bridge to meet the Hur worth hounds, which place was about eight 

 miles from Yarm. Our road led us through the village of Hurworth, 

 within a short distance of the kennel, and we overtook the hounds 

 going to covert. They were accompanied only by Mr. Wilkinson 

 and his whipper-in ; and Mr. Flounders took this opportunity of 

 introducing me to Mr. Wilkinson. I found him very much what 

 I expected to find him — a well-fed Englishman, with a back as 

 broad as those of three of our dandies put together ; mounted on 

 a finely-shaped chesnut-horse, looking very like a hunter to carry 

 seventeen stone which he had then on his back; with a keen 

 eye in his head, and a very intelligent countenance — strong, to 



