112 FIELD AND FERN. 



all breeds and shapes composed ' ' The Lower House" 

 near the ivy-covered water-mill. They lie in their 

 tubs, watching for the rats as they come saucily up 

 to their very trenchers, and then make some fine field 

 practice. We never saw a more motley lot. Snap 

 with his chocolate nose, Jack the rough and ready, 

 Nettle with her Landseer head, Chloe of the turnspit 

 legs, Toby of the prick ear, Gipsey, Spicy, the tail- 

 less Peg and Punch, the game black Wasp, and little 

 Dandy, which scarcely weighs 51bs., and yet makes it a 

 rule of life not to pass a day without killing something. 

 And on we went to the sheep and shorthorns, past 

 the front of the house facing the park, which recalls 

 Badminton so strongly that we quite expected Tom 

 Clark and the hounds to appear among the trees in 

 the distance, on tbeir way to ' ' the lawn meet." The 

 days of foxhunting at the castle departed with Duke 

 Alexander, who died in 1827. The herd numbers 

 from sixty to seventy, and has been gradually built 

 up since 1842 under the present factor, Mr. B ai- 

 mer, and his father by Mons. Vestris (6220), 

 Bloomsbury (9972), Magnum Bonum (13277) by 

 Matadore, Willis's Water King (13980), and Whip- 

 per-in (19139). Among the cows, Victoria and 

 Flirt, a capital breeder and milker, both tes- 

 tify to Magnum Bonum ; and Princess, the dam 

 of Victoria (whose daughters Duchess 3rd and 

 Mangosteen are the best representatives of Prince 

 Arthur), goes back to Barclay's Pacha. The roan 

 Princess Royal and the light red Mysie are bred on 



