, A uld L ang Syne. 325 



Quornite ; but we believe he never entered them, and 

 kept them as a derision on the pack. 



Charles and Harry Wards were both fine horsemen 

 and first-rate sportsmen, and whether they ever 

 attempted to influence the old squire to change his 

 style of hound we know not, but be that as it may, he 

 never did. Robert Forfeit hunted them many years, 

 and did as well as any one could with that sort of 

 pack. Talking of sportsmen, Jem .Butler was the 

 man, as he probably knew more of hunting, and 

 studied the genius of the hound more than any one of 

 his time. He had a peculiar method of breaking his 

 hounds, which no one before him ever carried to so 

 great excess, or with such perfect success. He did 

 not put a whipper-in before and another behind them 

 to prevent their breaking away ; and he never would 

 have them rated till they had committed a fault. 

 " Let them wander where they will," he used to say, 

 " if they run a hare, they cannot run her long, without 

 checking, and that's the time to rate 'em." He was 

 no advocate for the whip. " A^s long as the old 

 hounds are steady," he said, " I can make the young 

 ones so without flogging." He knew when to let them 

 alone, and when to stir 'em, better than most men. 

 Originally he was whipper-in to Bob Forfeit, till Bob 

 gave it up, and then he succeeded him. In his 

 younger days he lived with Sir Clement Cotterell, in 

 Oxfordshire, and hunted his otter hounds, and after 

 that hunted a pack of beagles ; and he had such an 

 eye that he could almost prick a hare in his gallop. 

 One of his invariable rules was never to get their 

 heads up. If he viewed a fox, he would, even if they 

 were at a check, give them a certain time to work it 

 out, and if obliged to lift them, would do it in a trot, 

 and keep their noses down as if trying for it. His 

 opinion was that they never enjoyed it after a lift as if 

 they had done it themselves. His pace in casting was 

 always guided by the scent he was engaged with ; but 



