LORD TOM NODDY. 



177 



However, the curiosity of the locals was not to be 

 gratified this time, and as the stranger's airs and graces 

 seemed to warrant it, they conferred upon him the appella- 

 tion of Lord Tom Noddy. One of * my Lord's ' favourite 

 assumptions was to pretend that he had ordered a second 

 horseman to meet him at a certain time, and as this 

 phantom of his imagination was invariably unpunctual, he 

 would ride up and down, loudly exclaiming * Confound that 

 man of mine, I told him distinctly to be on the look-out for 

 me at two o'clock.' 



Run to Ground — The Ethics of Digging-out. 



The moral principle upon which digging-out is justified 

 by the veteran Mr. Tailby, is that if a fox has been run hard 

 and crawls to ground, if left he may slowly die there ; and if 

 he selects a drain may drown, or die a lingering death. If 

 there were two exits he always left one open, and took care 

 that the fox should not be surrounded by either the field or 

 the hounds. 



Other old-fashioned sportsmen consider that if a fox has 

 given a good straight run, and, notwithstanding that most 

 of the earths have been stopped, he succeeds in finding a 

 harbour of refuge, it should be respected ; and if he has been 

 sorely pressed, ' Whilst there's life there's hope,' and the 

 gallant fox may live to run another day, as he richly 

 deserves to do — 



' Whilst he who's in the battle slain, 

 Will never rise to run again.' 



Of course if hounds are deprived of their well earned and 

 legitimate quarry, they soon become slack, but I think the 

 latter practice is now more generally adopted by Masters 

 at the present day. 



From hunting to shooting is only a step, and it may be 



M 



