36 FIELD AND FERN. 



ing five days a fortnight up to May morning. The 

 kennel at Swanbinster is near the sea, and more 

 than once the deep toll of some of the Hebden blood 

 has acted like an Inchcape bell, and prevented sailors 

 as well as the master of the pack from running in 

 a fog on that treacherous shore. Dick Smith, the 

 first whip and kennel huntsman, is a great character, 

 and enthusiast as well. He was born, like his master, 

 in .Devonshire ; and his hunting budget of " Horner 

 Wood, Withy Pool, Winnesford, and all that way," 

 is inexhaustible. As for the story of the stag which 

 took the sea near Porlock it is quite an epic poem, 

 when told with his curious chuckle. He has one very 

 cherished link with Dulverton in " Crowner," whose 

 grandam, as he duly impressed on us, was from 

 there. The Huxwell drafts have done good service, 

 and so have the Eamont and the Holker. Eamont 

 Bluecap was quite a pilot till Gipsey arrived from 

 Wales; Bachelor hasa strain of the bloodhound in him, 

 and " knows to a nicety when she squats " ; Bustler 

 is quite a guide-post on the roads ; and Royal swings 

 himself round in his cast quicker than any of the ten 

 couple. Dick grows vastly excited when she " begins 

 to lollop," and not only rides hard, but strictly for 

 the pot, of which, strange as it may seem, on one 

 occasion a pig partially deprived him. The hound 

 Monitor is his " difficulty" : he will call him " Wai- 

 later"; "/or, Maister, I never could remember the 

 name of that theer hound" 



Mr. Fortescue has 3,500 acres of his own to hunt 



