io6 FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



hounds. ' No, no/ said Matty, ' " Nimrod '' shall 

 have the brush,' and it hangs up in my hall. 

 It is quite evident I had no pretensions to it, 

 therefore I considered it the greater comphment. 

 We drew again, and three foxes all broke covert 

 at the same moment ; but we did nothing worth 

 speaking of, although they tasted one of them. 



*' Matty, however, is the hero of my tale ; and 

 his character is described in a few words. He 

 boasts of no scholastic education, no collegiate 

 reading ; neither does he appear to be much 

 under the discipline of art. But of this he may 

 be proud — he keeps a pack of foxhounds on 

 perhaps smaller means to keep them with than 

 almost any other man in England ; and he is 

 acknowledged by all to be as good a rough-and- 

 ready sportsman as ever halloed to hound. He 

 is likewise much esteemed amongst his neigh- 

 bours as a kind-hearted man, a character, indeed, 

 true sportsmen for the most part lay claim to and 

 maintain. 



" In everything relating to the passion for 

 hunting, I should be inclined to say, Mr. Matthew 

 Wilkinson may have his equal, but his superior 

 would be difficult to produce. His attachment 

 to his hounds is almost beyond belief, and nearly 

 equals that of an old maid to her cat. He has 

 always some of his favourites walking about his 

 house ; and to a bitch with whelps he will give 

 as much as she can eat of a good sirloin of beef 

 or leg of mutton from his own table. I had it on 

 unquestionable authority that, although he keeps 



