" CHARLES." 291 



and he said, " I don't care whether they do or not, so long 

 as we get the hounds and go home." 



Against this, on another occasion, when hounds had 

 run a fox from Woodcock Heath through the woods to 

 near Ash Bank, Draycott, the run fox, with six couples of 

 hounds, went away on the lower side and to ground in 

 a stick heap above Hound Hill. Meanwhile, Charles, 

 with the main body, was halloaed on to a fresh one, and 

 had a capital gallop all over Agardsley and Hollybush, 

 but lost his fox. Some one told him about the other lot, 

 and he was very much annoyed, and said, "If it hadn't 

 been for the fool halloaing a fresh one, I should have 

 hilled my fox and gone home happy." 



Perhaps the fault lay in his circumstances. His bread 

 and butter never depended on the sport he showed, and 

 therefore it is just possible that he never " fashed himself," 

 as the Scotch say, nor exerted his powers to the utmost. If 

 things went well it was all right. No one could ride up 

 to hounds better than he could, nor could there be a finer 

 horseman, and he thoroughly enjoyed a good gallop. But 

 he never was a man to make a good day out of a bad one, 

 nor did he ever care much to jump a big awkward boundary 

 fence to make a cast. His principle — the one on which 

 he had been brought up — was to let hounds alone. And, 

 though the Meynell country does not lend itself to bold 

 casts, he may have carried this to an excess. '* If they 

 can't hunt him, I'm sure I can't," he would say, as he 

 trotted round by the road, leaving hounds to work it out 

 or not, as they pleased. That he understood his business 

 there can be no doubt, but it is possible that his dislike of 

 persevering with a cold scent may have affected the hounds, 

 for latterly they were as impatient of adverse circumstances 

 as he was. 



Still, he was a rare fellow to go hunting with. To 

 hear his voice in the woods was a treat. Not even 



"The cheer of Philip Payne as he 

 The echoiag woodlands drew " 



was any richer in volume than that with which Charles 



