\mi BANKEE. 293 



their own fox. None of that 'Dead,' 'Dead,' 'Dead!' 

 and beating them off. This did them a lot of good, and 

 made them keen on a fox. Mr. Bolton King used to say, 

 ' It's a pity you can't take Banker out in a carriage and 

 put him down at a check.' Well, the hounds did not get 

 home till half-past ten that night. Isaac came to me and 

 said, ' The first hound that came in was old Banker, 

 master.' He was by Hector out of Barbara, by Lord 

 Yarborough's Hector. Castor ? He came from the Bicester ; 

 I gave him to Mr. North's boy when he w^as christened. 

 He was the youngest master of a hound in England. I 

 told Lord Willoughby I ought to have some of those 

 cups, of which he wins so many at Peterborough. Your 

 father, sir, was a good master ; he only scolded me 

 about once. He was vexed about Jones having lost his 

 fox, and ordered me to take my horse out of the deep 

 ground ; he never would have the horses knocked about, 

 nothing vexed him so much as that. I remember once. 

 Jack Cummings had left, and there was only Enever to 

 whip in. Jones had had a bad fall, so Enever had to hunt 

 them, and I whipped in. I rode a crop-eared horse called 

 Prestbury.* We went away from WoKord Wood like mad 

 down to Evenlode ; Mr. Griffiths, of Campden, says to me, 

 * Bob, you'll have to harden your heart ; it's a big one ; I 

 mean having a go, stick close to me.' I kept close on his 

 right ; he jumped it, but fell on landing. I thought I was 

 over, but the bank gave way, and Prestbury came back 



*Tliis horse was afterwards bought by Captain Chambers, who hunted at 

 Leamington, and he carried him well for many seasons. 

 Voltaire once wrote as follows : 



" The Eng'lish as their savage taste prevails. 

 Behead their kings, and dock their horses' tails." 



Voltaire surely was a little previous in this sarcasm, " Those who live in glass 

 houses." K.T.K. The custom of cropping a horse's ears has long gone out. This 

 year, 1895, a like practice of docking their tails is less in vogue, while that of the hog 

 mane for a hunter can only be a passing craze of fashion. No object can possiblj' be 

 giiined by it. It reduces a noble hunter to the level of a polo pony, makes it exceedingly 

 difficult to mount in a hurry, and might even help to create a serious fall. " Brooksby," 

 in one of his articles in the Field, I remember, wrote very strongly against this fashion, 

 pointing out its uselessness and absurdity. It may sometimes but rarely happen that a 

 hunter's mane grows so badly that it stands upright and cannot be combed straight, in 

 which only it may be necessary to hog it. — W. R. V. 



