Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« […]The circumstances that led to my "Northern Tour" are as follows. All the sporting world know the Earl of Kintore, his social and o’ood-humoured character, his warmth of friendship which knows no bounds, and his enthusiastic love of fox-hunting which I should imagine cannot well be exceeded. I became acquainted, with his lordship some ten or twelve years back at Melton, and have since enjoyed his friendship, and partaken of his benevolence. Now sympathy has been called the mother of friendship— and justly so called, for the weight of sorrow is broken by being divided, and no doubt my noble friend sympathized with me in my present situation, deprived of the enjoyment of a sport he is aware I love nearly as much as he loves it himself. One evening in the month of September, 1834, then, I saw a tripple letter lying on my table with the seal uppermost, the impression on which was a fox’s head, with the words " Floreat scientia" on the wreath that encircled it. "A sportsman;’’ said I to myself, and, turning the other side uppermost espied " Kintore" in the corner. The purport of the letter was, to convey to me the good wishes of his lordship for my future prospects in life, and to tell me that he thought it might "put a spoke in my wheel" if were to pass a winter in Scotland, where he could ensure me a welcome reception. The pleasure this invitation afforded me, or the feelings it gave birth to, I need not take the trouble to describe. My readers will appreciate them ; neither would it have been necessary to observe, considering the auspices under which I was about to appear among them, that I was likely to be most kindly received by my brother sportsmen in the North. A second letter from my noble friend was conclusive of every thing. In it he gave me to understand that he should order two horses to be hired for my use, from a "would-be Tilbury" in Edinburgh, and that they should await my arrival at Dunse, Lord Elcho’s head quarters, by the first week in November; and from Dunse my future route was marked out by him.[…] » Présentation de l’éditeur (1838)