THE BROTHERS ROrNDINO. 49 



here they go ! what a head they make altogether ! get 

 forward, my boys ! they are laying at huii, as bitter as soot. 

 Now — now for the brush ! " 



A celebrated foxhunter in Essex was accustomed to 

 say : " I compare Dick and his grey horse to the moon ; 

 the longer and faster I ride, no nearer can I get to them." 



The two Roundings did not possess an acre of land 

 in the county ; and no hounds hunted a country more 

 pleasantly than they did. The landowners and farmers of 

 Essex were such lovers of foxhunting, and the excellent 

 sport which a chase afforded them, that not a murmur 

 escaped their lips.^ Indeed, the contrary was the fact, as 

 it was the general expression of these gentlemen to Tom 

 and Dick Rounding, " Why do you pass our houses in 

 returning home ? You know we have at all times ale and 

 bread and cheese for you and the held, with a hearty 

 welcome." 



Pierce Egan states that the Roundings kept their 

 foxhounds imtil Dick died of a fever, when his brother 

 abandoned hunting entirely for some years. That authority 



' This was similar to the experience of Colonel John Cook and (in our own 

 day) of Mr. C. E. Green, while it was in curious contrast to the attitude assumed 

 by some of the Essex landowners and farmers during the mastership of Mr. 

 Henley Greaves, when one of the objections to him was that he owned no land 

 in the county. 



