The Merry Past 



green hay horse: the "Amen" stuck in the clerk's 

 mouth at an after-part of the service : whilst the 

 sexton, unable to control himself, actually ran out 

 after the pack. The church belles were all put in 

 confusion, and Mr. Corbet was scarcely able to re- 

 strain himself from following the pack and joining 

 in the chase. Meanwhile old Stubbs, after a capital 

 run of three-quarters of an hour, killed the fox. 



According to Osbaldeston, who had as much ex- 

 perience of hunting counties as any man has ever had, 

 Lincolnshire was the best scenting county in England, 

 and consequently the best hunting county of all. The 

 better the scent, the better it becomes, because it 

 enables hounds to be near their foxes : the nearer you 

 are to your foxes, the more chance there is of their 

 running straight : the nearer to a straight line a run 

 approaches, the more it is of the best character of 

 fox-hunting. In all these perfections the 'nature of 

 the soil of Lincolnshire conduces, added to which, as 

 Osbaldeston said, the rasping drains which were occa- 

 sionally met with thinned a troublesome field, and 

 made the county a fox-hunter's paradise. 



Lincolnshire was the scene of Osbaldeston's debut, 

 and he ever spoke of it with enthusiasm. 



Excellent sport was enjoyed in old days by small 

 private packs, and about 1820 a pack of rabbit-hounds, 

 kept by a gentleman in Dorsetshire, acquired a con- 

 siderable reputation. This pack consisted of seven 

 couple of the most diminutive of the blended blood 

 of the beagle and the harrier, as prima facie exempli- 

 fied in the round pending ear, generous dark spots, 



38 



