S3 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



"He is a coward, yet I have seen him fight like a hero more 

 than once, and against heavy odds, to save me from a threshing, 

 which I got after all, though not without some damage to our 

 foes, whose name might have been legion. 



" He is the greatest liar I ever met with ; and yet I never 

 caught him in a falsehood, for he believes it is no use to tell 

 me one. 



" He is most utterly dishonest, yet I have trusted him with 

 sums that would, in his opinion, have made him a rich man for 

 life, and he accounted to the utmost shilling ; but I advise you 

 not to try the same, for if you do he most assuredly will cheat 

 you !" 



Among the heavy looking hounds, which clustered round this 

 hopeful gentleman, I quickly singled out two couple of widely 

 different breed and character from the rest ; your thorough 

 high-bred racing fox-hounds, with ears rounded, thin shining 

 coats, clean limbs, and all the marks of the best class of English 

 hounds. 



" Aye ! Frank," said Archer, as he caught my eye fixed on 

 them, " you have found out my favorites. Why, Bonny Belle, 

 good lass, why Bonny Belle ! here Blossom, Blossom, come 

 Up and show your pretty figures to your countryman! Poor 

 Hanbury do you remember, Frank, how many a merry day 

 we've had with him by Thorley Church, and Takely forest ? 

 poor Hanbury sent them to me with such a letter, only the year 

 before he died; and those, Dauntless and Dangerous, I had 

 from Will, Lord Harewood's huntsman, the same season -!" 



" There never was sich dogs there never was afore in Or- 

 ange," said Tom. "I will say that, though they be English^ 

 and though they be too fast for fox, entirely, there never was 

 sich dogs for deer" 



"But how the deuce," I interrupted, "can hounds be too 

 fast, if they have bone and stanchness !'' 



" Stanchness be darned ; they holes them l n 



" No earthstoppers in these parts, Frank," cried Harry ; " and 

 as the object of these gentlemen is not to hunt solely for the 

 fun of the thing, but to destroy a noxious varmint, they prefer 

 a slow, sure, deep-mouthed dog, that does not press too closely 

 on Pug, but lets him take his time about the coverts, till he 

 comes into fair gunshot of these hunters, who are lying perdu 

 as he runs to get a crack at him.' 7 



** And pray," said I, "is this your method of proceeding 3" 



