88 England's oldest hunt. 



" Bobbie " lay in the first of two rooms — " his chamer " 

 he called it — with his head near the little window looking to- 

 wards the hills and moors over which he had so often galloped, 

 and close to which his house was situated. Attached to it 

 is a garth, and only a few yards away is Breckon Hill Farm, 

 where Mrs. Teasdale, a distant relation of the deceased 

 hunter, resides. It was Mrs. Teasdale who attended the 

 old man in his last illness, who nursed him, who baked his 

 " bit o' bread," and, indeed, who looked after him for long 

 as though he were one of her own family. In his own crude 

 way Dawson was thankful. He was rarely, if ever, demon- 

 strative, but, as I have said, in his own quiet, sincere way he 

 felt thankful. When at last careful nursing was required, 

 the old man consented to go to bed at Mrs. Teasdale's. 

 Now, the long period he had lived by himself, and perhaps 

 his old age too, had made him careless about his personal 

 appearance, and " Bobbie " became at the last end very 

 dirty ; his house became dirty, everything he had was dirty. 

 Can one wonder ? He did not at any time suffer people to 

 enter his cottage, let alone allow them to interfere with it. 

 He did not care very much at his great age what state his 

 things were in so long as he had a drop of gin, a bit of turf 

 cake, and a fire. It is quite conceivable. When, however, 

 he went to Breckon Hill, he was bathed, put into a clean, 

 sweet-smelling room, amid cleanly surroundings and his 

 thanks were summed up in the exclamation : " It's like 

 heaven." Surely this was praise, commendation, and thanks, 

 such as could not have been more eloquent. As I have said, 

 to the end his conversation was on hunting. Hung in the 

 corner of his kitchen I saw, covered with dust, and black 

 with age, two fox brushes. What pride " Bobbie " set by 

 them ! Now they were uncared for. Such is the end of 

 foibles. 



One hobby the old man had was collecting hunt buttons, 

 and of these a goodly number were found in his house. 

 All his belongings which were of value he disposed of prior 

 to his death, giving his watch to a little lad of Mrs. Teasdale's 

 — the brother of the present whip of the pack — a horn to 



