HUNTING 53 



to look more closely at it, when it sprang at 

 him and bit him through the chin. Fortunately 

 for the welfare of the pack, the precaution had 

 been taken of tying the hound up by himself 

 on arrival, and therefore, as far as my memory 

 serves me, no other hounds were bitten, for this 

 one shortly afterwards went raving mad and had 

 to be destroyed. The man bitten underwent 

 a course of treatment, and it was confidently 

 hoped he had escaped all ill consequences ; and 

 when I arrived home on leave from my regiment 

 early in the following February, I anxiously 

 asked how the patient was, and was informed he 

 seemed perfectly right. This was on a "Wednes- 

 day, and as fate would have it the poor fellow 

 was taken ill that very night, and died at the end 

 of that week. 



Rabies was very prevalent just then, and 

 shortly after the occurrence at the Bedale 

 kennels, my father's keepers were going out 

 rabbiting at Thorpe Green, having with them 

 several terriers belonging to me. According to 

 the report I afterwards received, just as they 

 started a strange dog appeared on the scene, and 

 attached itself to them, whereupon one of the men 

 suggested they should allow it to come on, to 

 see if it was any good. It immediately, however, 

 began fighting and quarrelling with the other 

 dogs, and it was not till it had been well thrashed 

 with sticks and battered with spades that it 

 at length withdrew. All the dogs out were at 

 once fastened up and examined, and only those 

 allow^ed to go about that showed no signs of 

 scratches at all, while those who showed any 

 tears in their skin, however slight, were kept 

 chained up and carefully secluded. It was well 



