lOO THE BROOK KEDRON. 



thing, to put a test, and said, " I suppose we are all capable of 

 saying to the ladies that the scenery round here is truly rural ? " 

 " Course we can," hiccoughed the cleric, " sheenery's tooral 

 rooral, lets go ! " 



A capital old fellow, of German extraction, who had learned to 

 love hunting, once volunteered to me on arriving on foot- — after a 

 thirteen-mile walk in the spring — at his place, where there 

 w^as a "lawn meet," — "you'll find a barrel of beer in the saddle- 

 room." Of course I expressed becoming gratitude for his offer, and 

 was on my way to the saddle-room when the old chap overhauled 

 me, and taking another good look at me through his spectacles, 

 said, " I beg your pardon, but your place, 1 think, is in there," 

 pointing simultaneously at the hall door. 



The story is told of a hard-riding parson, who, on being asked 

 whether he spelt the brook Kedron, mentioned in the scriptures, 

 with a " K " or a " C," replied that he had never even heard of it ; 

 adding that he only knew of two brooks, the Brant and the 

 Whissendine, and he could spell both, and thank heaven, jump 

 both! 



Names obviously cannot be given, but as showing the perhaps 

 justifiable rage into which men can fling themselves on being jumped 

 upon, the follow^ing is a humorous example : The victim, on regaining 

 his feet, turned round, and shaking his fist at the man who had 

 followed unpardonably close in his wake, and had also " got " 

 down, yelled, " You, you something, something, something, I'd 

 rather have a load of manure on top of me than such as you." 



An occasion is recalled ^vhen the writer viewed a fox away 

 from a covert, the Master being the first to respond to his view 

 holloa. After a still-born puff on the horn, followed by " curse " ; a 

 second ineffectual attempt followed by "damn"; and a third followed 

 by " blast " — the latter by no means the one he was aspiring to 

 produce, I said, " Here ! give it me," but the rapid arrival of the 

 field put an end to a humorous situation. 



The late Major E. F. Dawson, of Launde Abbey, told me the 

 following : he was walking one day in the Park Wood, carrj^ng a 

 gun. After a time he w^as surprised to hear the mellow^ cry of hounds 

 in the district, for on that particular day they had met far away. 

 In due course the pack crashed into the wood, and two horsemen 

 came galloping into view along one of the rides ; when they saw 



