94 WOLF-HUNTING. 



they were out of sight, and, in another, throwing their tongues so 

 vigorously that an inexperienced hand would have concluded the 

 game was afoot and they swinging after it like tenor bells. But 

 St. Prix, at least, knew better ; so did the hounds coupled at his 

 heels : with ears puckered forward and deep furrows indenting 

 their faces, indicative of intent thought and earnestness, they stood 

 mute and still as statues, evidently, however, noting every change 

 in the cry, and apparently aware that their time for action had 

 not yet arrived. 



Some forty years ago, the well-known Devonshire Squire, 

 George Templer, had a hound called Guardsman that, so long as 

 hounds were drawing or even running the drag with much music 

 not in those days considered so great a barbarism never quitted 

 his horse's heels : but, the moment the fox was really up, then 

 went Guardsman to the front, and held his own there against all 

 comers. I have heard Mr. Templer say that the hound was 

 most valuable to him for that very quality; inasmuch, as 

 frequently in the deep covers he hunted, when hounds were all 

 but out of hearing and their notes undistinguishable by him, 

 Guardsman would let him know the very instant the fox was 

 found : like an arrow from the bow he sped forth, and never 

 stayed his course till he had run him to ground or brought the 

 fox's head home in his own jaws. I speak of sport antecedent to 

 the period of the " Let-'em-alones," when a pack of foxes were 

 literally kept in kennel by Mr. Templer and turned out as bagmen 

 before those hounds, and when horsemen, like the Rev. Henry 

 Taylor and John Templer, more like centaurs than men, rode over 

 that rough country as if they were carried by winged dragons, and 

 not by mere horse-flesh such as we see in the present day ; men, 

 who so long as honour, manliness, and genial sociality are valued, 

 will long be remembered in the county of Devon with unqualified 

 respect and affection. 



But, hark back ! I am over the line, and getting somewhat 



