CHAPTER XIL 



THE ROYAL BUCKHOUNDS. 



N(3E again the year has revolved, and the 

 first meet of the season being announced, 

 I determined to do what I have done any 

 time this forty years, namely, to journey 

 to Salthill in order to be present on the opening day 

 of the Queen's Hounds. 



Forty years since is a long time to look back, and 

 I am fain to exclaim, "Companions of my youth, 

 where are ye? " Where is Captain Howard Vyse of 

 Stoke, a clinker across country? where are the 

 Coxes of Hilhngdon, as they were familiarly called ; 

 right good men all of them over the grass ; Cap- 

 tain, or as he was better known in days past, 

 Johnny Best, 'good at everything, and riding in par- 

 ticular; Haig, the impetuous, on Shillalah, looking 

 out for the most impracticable place, that he might 

 have a shy at it ; Philpot, who was a nailer over the 

 Harrow country; Montgomery, on Tam Bouff, a noted 

 grey, who specially negotiated timber ; Holligan, on 

 the Creeper, the pick of Tollit's stud — a rum one to 

 look at, but a good one to go ; Tom Edwards, on Tom 

 Tug, a persevering party over a stiff line of country ; 

 Jack Stevens, on Cock of the Heath, a much -talked- 



