THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



fact, is now in the mouths of some old men in the parish, when 

 speaking of Dick, the Squire's huntsman, and his lop-eared 

 horse, which he purchased out of a neighbouring gentleman's 

 coach-stable. Mounted on this horse, however, Dick was in 

 his element ; beautifully did he ride him to the music of his 

 crack pack, and, did he espy among his field any gentleman 

 whom he knew to have hunted in Leicestershire (he designated 

 all such ' your silver -liandled sjjortsmen '), awful must have 

 been the fence that turned him ten yards from his line, when 

 his hounds were on a good scent. 



Nor was Dick less notable on the field. He ' did the trick ' 

 in a style differing from his brother huntsmen of the scut, and, 

 to manifest his superiority by quitting the beaten track, hunted 

 his pack as if they had been foxhounds. He tallyhoed his hares 

 when they were in view ; hallooed his hounds forward, cap in 

 hand, to a point ; and, by forcing his game to fly beyond their 

 knowledge of the country in which they were bred, had runs of 

 extraordinary duration. In fact, such was the speed of these 

 harriers, from the head they carried in chase, the result of the 

 care taken in the breeding of them, that many first-rate hunters 

 — ay, and hunters of fame too — have been blown to a dead 

 stand-still, in the attempt to lie by the side of them in a burst, 

 when the ground has been tender under their feet, and the 

 scent good ; and yet no man had more patience than Dick, 

 when his hounds were brought down to their noses by the stain 

 from cattle or sheep, or by a passing cloud or storm. Here he 

 was the hare-hunter ; and often has been the time when success 

 has rewarded his patience, after that of his field had been 

 exhausted. What did you do with your last hare ? would be 

 the question put to him many times during the season, by 

 Mr. Raby, on his return home, he himself having left in a 

 moment of despair. ' I 2:)ersevered, sir, and killed her,' was 

 the general reply. 



Mr. Raby pursued one practice connected with his hunting, 

 which might, with advantage, be more generally observed. He 

 provided his huntsman with a book, in which were inserted 

 the names of all the occupiers of land over which he sported, 

 and he ordered that a hare should be given to each in his turn, 

 and oftentimes twice, during the season. 



But Mr. Raby was not a fox-hunter ; for, in the first place, 

 although an elegant horseman, and an excellent judge of the 



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