288 SOME HUMOURS OF THE CHASE 



woman' not long ago ?" quoth the lady. "Impossible!" 

 said the gallant and ready old Irishman ; " I called you 

 a grand woman ; and so you are, begad ! " 



We feel sure that the great Mr. Jorrocks, though 

 he declared to James Pigg that he would see him 

 "frightening rats from a barn wi' the bagpipes at a 

 'alfpenny a day, and findin' yoursel', afore I'll 'ave any- 

 thing more to say to ye," would have been quite 

 unequal to such vituperative recrimination when dis- 

 mounted from Arterxerxes, or in the quiet retirement 

 of Great Coram Street. But of the facetious sayings of 

 Masters of Hounds there is no end. 



Still, many very celebrated Masters and several 

 famous huntsmen have left behind them a reputation 

 for the good things they have said in the hunting-field, 

 and it seems a pity that more of these conversational 

 plums have not been preserved. It is most aggra- 

 vating in " Nimrod's " Memorial Sketch of the great John 

 Warde in the Sporting Revieio to read of the "well- 

 known " good sayings of that celebrity, his " well- 

 known reply " to Mr. So-and-so, and his tale concerning 

 something else are mentioned, but " Nimrod " gives no 

 more information about these jests than honest 

 Diggory did about the aforesaid " Grouse in the Gun- 

 room " ; and we must be thankful that more recent 

 authors have not followed this example. Sir Reginald 

 Graham in his Fox-hunting Recollections, for instance, 

 records the delightful story against himself. " With 

 all the confidence of youth," writes Sir Reginald, who 

 had found himself alone with the puzzled pack (the 

 Burton, Lord Henry Bentinck, M.F.H.) " I proceeded to 

 hold hounds down wind and then in other directions. 



