150 WOLF-HUNTING. 



and, before the pack were well on him, he was crossing the 

 mountain ridge and going at a round gallop straight for Kcenig. 

 Fortunately, our horses were at hand, held by Kergoorlas' drunken 

 piqueur and Owen Mawr ; but, though we managed to view him 

 frequently, and the hounds carried a fine head over the heathery 

 waste, "the fresh hat" proved too strong in the struggle, and 

 reached the great covers of Kilvern ahead of us all. This was 

 tantamount to a " fair backfall ;" and as the shades of night were 

 already taking possession of the woodland glens below, and the 

 hounds were more than half beaten by their hard day's work, 

 St. Prix blew his horn and stopped farther pursuit. 



On our homeward route to Gourin the hound Veteran fre- 

 quently ranged alongside my horse, and, observing his high crown 

 and long face, I remarked to Shafto that I had never seen a more 

 sensible countenance than his in my life. 



"Quite right!" he exclaimed; "that hound reminds me always 

 of old Eldon ; and, had our late archbishop ever heard him throw 

 his tongue, he would infallibly have pronounced him to be a 

 sound, dependable, orthodox hound. By-the-bye," continued 

 he, " that Devonshire fellow-voyager of mine, on board the 

 Norwegian timber-brig, gave me rather a novel definition of 

 that word ' orthodox/ It appeared that a parish adjoining his 

 own, in the north of Devon, had for some months lacked the 

 services of a curate, although the rector,* an energetic parish priest^ 

 had spared no pains to obtain a right man. The rector was also 

 the master of a rattling pack of hounds ; and his churchwarden, 

 Tozer, paying the market-town a visit about this time, was thus 

 accosted by his grocer: 



" ' Well, Mr. Tozer, have ye got a coorate, yit, for Bridgwell?' 



" ' Not yit ; they don't all suit master : but here's his advertise- 

 ment, so I reckon he'll soon get one : 



* The "Prime Minister" before alluded to. 



