223 



a fast run better than Lord John — quite a master 

 at it." 



The Fitzwilliam Feudal crossed well with the Mar- 

 quis blood, and his daughter Helen was the dam of 

 Hector. Monitor of this sort was a great hound, 

 and Driver, his sire, a wonder. In the best run 

 that Will ever had, and the only one he ever wrote 

 an account of, they had very nearly lost their fox, 

 owing to a very large sheep fair. Driver picked 

 up the scent, and almost knocked Will's horse 

 down by the crash with which he came through his 

 forelegs, and at last pulled his fox from below a con- 

 duit near Carfrae Mill. The run was over a rough 

 and wild country; and the rougher and wilder the 

 country, and the more liberty for a wild fox, the 

 better Will liked it. Finding on the Lammermoors 

 or the Cheviots was his delight : " There were my best 

 foxes; that^s my taste — it's not a common one." 

 Penicuick of course suited him, and he was quite in 

 his element opening up the country by St. Mary^s 

 Loch, "an outlandish place," where none but 

 Willie Tweedie, a few old hounds, and "all and sun- 

 dries that could fire a gun" had ever been before. 

 " Mercy ! no one else would ^o near it. I got away 

 from the Edinburgh rattle, deil a one would ride in 

 it. One of them had such a tupable on the Pent- 

 lands ; he put his hand to his face and felt the blood — 

 ^ Mercy on us, Williamson ! Vm spoilt for the imrties' — 

 deil do I care about the country, so tliat the hounds 

 and the fox have their liberty." 



