Hunting in the Golden Days. 13 



** and let the hound bide. It costs enough to fill his belly 

 now without a' hunting." 



Presently the horn sounded again, this time nearer. 

 There was a crash and a sound of broken glass ; the 

 old hound had jumped through a lattice window. 



*' Blame it," said the father, " it would have been 

 cheaper to let old Trueman a' gone a' hunting than a' 

 kept him." 



Yes, times were different then. We now hear of 

 the golden farmer and wonder what sort of a man he 

 could have been. An innkeeper at Bagshot changed 

 the name of his sign from Golden Farmer to 

 Jolly Farmer to make it more comprehensible to the 

 uninitiated. In the days of which I am writing, wheat 

 fetched ^40 a load, and a farmer could afford to send 

 his corn to market with a team of six horses with good 

 harness and bells. I once remarked to a present-day 

 farmer what a good old custom it was to have bells 

 on the horses, and asked him why he did not have 

 them on his teams. 



" Why, lor, sir," he replied, *' I wouldn't do it for 

 something. If my landlord saw me doing that, he'd 

 think I was making a fortune, and would raise my rent 

 at once." 



So much for his landlord ! 



But I am digressing from my story. The hounds are 

 now in cover, their merry music proclaiming the pleasure 

 the exercise affords them. Dr. Viles, an impatient 

 little man, rides up on his flea-bitten grey, with a lean 

 head and neck, and asks the Squire if he thinks they 

 will find in this spinney. He does not wait for an 

 answer, but rides off to another corner of the cover, and 

 asks a similar question of another sportsman, and again 

 rides off before an answer can be returned. But his 



