4 REMINISCENCES OF A SPOKTSMAX. 



and on my arrival I received a most cordial welcome 

 from him, his wife, and two amiable daughters. As an 

 old sportsman I had an additional motive for wishing to 

 pay this visit, as the fame of Major Lutyens for his suc- 

 cess in killing wild boars with his pack of English fox- 

 hounds had reached me in Grascony. I recollect with 

 much pleasure that I passed a fortnight most agreeably 

 with the family. The weather was delightful, and we en- 

 joyed many rides in the wide avenues of the noble forest 

 of Amboise, which was then the property of the Duke 

 of Orleans, afterwards Louis Philippe ; and my friend, 

 who spoke French fluently, had ingratiated himself with 

 most of the French families of the neighbourhood, 

 whom he frequently invited to dinner during my stay 

 with him. The next morning after my arrival he took 

 me into one of his rooms to show me all the trophies of 

 his successful chases against the wild boars. These con- 

 sisted of a considerable number of their tusks, some very 

 large and sharp, and some of the skins of the largest. 

 He also showed me a letter which he had received from 

 the private secretary of the Duke of Orleans to thank 

 him for the great benefit he had conferred on the tenants 

 of his royal highness, who had farms adjacent to this 

 forest, b}' the number of wild boars he had killed. We 

 afterwards visited the kennel, where I saw about ten 

 couples of foxhounds all in excellent condition, and the 

 premises remarkably clean. He showed me the wounds 

 which were then healed on several of his hounds, some 

 of them apparently very severe. These they had re- 

 ceived in their encounters with the wild boar when he 

 was brought to bay. He had had some hounds killed 

 when fighting with these enraged animals. From what 

 he related of the courage and mettle displayed by the 



