102 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



^' What did you do that for? You'd better have 

 brought out a bone in your pocket, and given it to 

 him, than have struck him for notJiing. 'Twould 

 have done the hound much more good." 



The two best whippers-in, and then the two best 

 huntsmen, / ever knew, were Harry Ayris, so long 

 in the service of Berkeley Castle, and George 

 Carter, who closed his hunting career with Mr. 

 Ashton Smith. I have been told that thq most 

 wonderful man of his day was Tom Oldacre, my 

 father's huntsman, and from my very earliest pony 

 hour through him I learned the rudiments and 

 realities of fox-hunting. 



