JERRY HAWKINS 145 



he now holds. In the field and in the kennel his talent 

 is well known ; out of it, a more steady, well-conducted, 

 civil, obliging, and resipectable man cannot exist. The 

 two whippers-in are Charles Turner, from the Ledbury, 

 and John Cummings, from the Lyneham. 



The average number of foxes killed in each season 

 may be estimated at rather more than fifty-five brace ; 

 they certainly increase annually, making allowance for 

 variations in bad j^ears, such as that of 1851 and 1852. 

 It is impossible they should be preserved with greater 

 attention in any hunt. With the exception of one 

 individual in the Broadway country, whose name is not 

 worthy to be mentioned, there is not a landed pro- 

 prietor, game preserver, or farmer, who is not favour- 

 ably disposed towards fox-hunting; although very few 

 of the latter class join in the chase. 



There is certainly no rank or station in life which is 

 not represented in the hunting-field, and this country 

 affords an example in the extraordinary zeal and 

 devotion of four decided characters, who seem to form 

 the link. Three of them are gone, it is to be hoped, to 

 the land where ' all good hunters go.' The first of 

 these whom I shall introduce is Mr. Jerry Hawkins, 

 better known in his own neighbourhood as ' Jerry 

 Hawkins,' one of that respectable class commonly 

 denominated gentlemen farmers. He lived on his own 

 estate, and devoted all his energies to fox-hunting; any 

 other species of hunting he held in sovereign contempt. 

 If the likeness of a sportsman on horseback is seen por- 

 trayed on an ale-jug or cider-cup of the old-fashioned 

 brown ware, it may be taken for granted to be a repre- 

 sentation of Jerry Hawkins, in the height of enthusiasm, 

 riding well up to the leading hounds, just as they are 

 running from scent to view into their beaten fox. 



Many characteristic anecdotes are related of this 

 worthy sportsman, but I shall confine myself to one 

 circumstance only which marks so strongly his ardent 

 devotion to the chase. Some years before his death he 

 built a kind of tower or observatory on his property at 



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