•294 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



side, waiting for the rain to abate — but a most agreeable evening at 

 Mr. John Monson's, where Sir BelHngham Graham was staying, 

 and two or three more of Mr. M.'s friends. Amongst them was his 

 brother-in-law, Mr. Wyvill, Member for York, whose manly and 

 independent speeches in Parliament I had often read and admired. 

 There is a vast deal of the native Englishman about this Mr. Wyvill, 

 and a very considerable share of talent ; and — what rendered him 

 in no wise less estimable in my eyes — he has always been a good 

 friend to fox-hounds. He hunted until he turned the scale against 

 twenty-two stone, and that stops all men except old Harbin and 

 John Ward. 



Sunday, 17th. — Eeturned to my old quarters at Norton Conyers, 

 and was happy to hear that Lord Darlington's hounds had had some 

 pretty sport in my absence. I was also glad to find Sir Bellingham 

 in better health, and his stud recovering from some bangs and 

 bruises that horses will get when ridden straight over a close country. 

 I had also the pleasure to hear, on good authority, that the Friday 

 after our capital run, the Lambton hounds had another tickler in 

 their home country, which again produced many alarming symptoms 

 among the horses, and several awkward excuses from their riders. 



Monday, 18th. — Lord Darlington's hounds met at Catterick Lime 

 Kilns, sixteen or seventeen miles from Norton Conyers ; but Sir 

 Bellingham Graham fought shy. Like all old masters of fox-hounds, 

 the pleasure of hunting with any other man's pack is not sufficient 

 to make him right keen, so I lost the pleasure of his company. We 

 found two, if not three, foxes in Tunstall whin, and one went away 

 over a good country. The Peer, however, was not aware of it, and 

 having the body of the hounds with himself in the whin, Will Price 

 got forward and stopped those that went away. But for this we 

 might have had a run, although there was but a middling scent. I 

 thought this looked like a good country for a good fox. We found 

 again, but he ran very short, and, being twenty miles from home, I 

 left about three o'clock. 



As one of the held was going to Bedale, and my hack was there, I 

 put myself under his protection, for I was in a strange country. 

 Our road lay through the Duke of Leeds' domain, Hornby Castle, 

 and I was surprised to find such a great extent of grazing land. 



