310 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



Too nice a taste — in no matter what — is little less than a curse. 

 He who is pleased with nothing short of perfection has less 

 pleasure and less happiness than one who is more moderate in his 

 expectations and desires. When I entered the Holderness kennel, 

 I did not expect to see a complete and perfect pack of hounds, such 

 for obvious reasons being within reach of but few ; but I was con- 

 fident I should see a good style of animal, hounds looking like 

 doing business, and drafted down, as the old man's cats were to 

 those only which would kill mice. No Modishes and Merkins 

 kept, as I have seen them kept, because they were too handsome 

 to hang, and too bad to give awtxy ; but almost ever}' hound in 

 Tom Hodgson's kennel looked, like his master, as if lie kneic lioiv 

 to hill a fox. 



There is a hound in the Holderness pack worth his weight in 

 sovereigns — one of the best and closest hunters I ever saw, and he 

 appeared quite without a fault. He is most appropriately named 

 Pilot, and in truth he is a capital steersman when any difficulty 

 occurs, at the same time that he runs quite up to the head. He is 

 a three-year-old hunter, and appears in the list as got by Mr. "Ward's 

 Palestine out of the Badsworth Harmony — the Duke of Grafton's 

 Eoderick blood — and drafted, I believe, for the Badsworth kennel. 

 Another hound of the same year I considered particularly good — 

 viz. Leveller by Lord Lonsdale's Leader out of Lord Yarborough's 

 Merry Lass — his Lordship's old Wildair sort : also Justice (very 

 clever, and a hound of great power), one year younger, by Mr. 

 Osbaldeston's Jasper out of Sir Bellingham Graham's Jealousy : 

 Comrade, same year, a capital sort, but don't exactly remember 

 what. 



The Holderness country has been established many years, and is 

 one of very considerable extent. Speaking geogi'aphically, it is 

 bounded by the German Ocean, by the river Humber, by Houden, 

 by Pocklington (fourteen miles from York), and Bridlington, on the 

 coast, eighteen miles south of Scarborough — which two latter 

 places may be called its corner points, and about thirty miles 

 apart. From North to South its extent is full forty-five, from East 

 to West thirty-six miles. It is only interrupted by Barnston whin 

 and Burton Agnes, and abounds in coverts and foxes. One half of 



