34 , THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



XIX. 



But Bob Lee, where's he, with wond-fisted Cox? 

 They'll tell you they stopped, having viewed the run fox. 

 Now with, '"Ware poison, 'Ware poison," hear Conyers Jack, 

 Both rating and whooping to stop the staunch pack. 



{Tune changes to "Duke of York's March.") 



XX. 



Now, cheering all Nature, Squire Meynell we spy. 

 And thrilling each heart with his "Hark to the cry." 

 Look how he caps them on ; hear how he screams. 

 And makes the whole world glow in raptures extreme. 



Chorus — See, see, them all spread. 

 Lord ! what a noble head ! 



Tally-ho ! the hounds in full view. Tally ho ! 

 Now, how the scent they drive. 

 No horses can with them live. 

 Hark away ! hark away ! they to Enderby go. 

 Then as we trudge home we pass Master Swaddle, 

 Whipping Pastime before him and carrying the saddle. 

 "Good people," says he, "I'm afraid she will die, 

 Tho' I've bled her myself in her mouth and her thigh." 

 " Now, let's to the alehouse," says Dick, " for a while. 

 And drink our old Master in cups of the mild. 

 And as we sit boozing it over the fire, 

 Toast happiness, health, and good sport to the squire." 



These doggerel verses, though possessing no poetical 

 merit whatever, are of interest as preserving for us the 

 names and peculiarities of the leading men with Mr. 

 Meynell's hounds. The greatest, the oldest, and most 

 famous of these must, of course, be Hugo Meynell the 

 First, the Father of Fox-hunting. AVhen we say " the 

 First," we mean from a hunting point of view, for doubt- 

 less there were many previous Hugo's ; in fact, Baron 

 de Grente Mesnil, the bosom friend of the Conqueror, 

 from whom he was descended, was Hugh or Hugo. 

 The Hugo the First with whom, however, we are con- 

 cerned, was born in 1735, at Bradley Hall, near Ash- 

 bourne, which had been purchased in 1655, from Sir 



