114 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



marked. They are particulai'ly deep in their fore-quarters ; short 

 and straight in their legs ; a little arched in their backs ; very clear 

 in their throats ; heads well set on ; rich in their colours ; and, 

 being lightly fed, have a very airy appearance. From the number 

 he enters — never less than twenty-two couples — he is able to keep 

 up that strength in his kennel which the severity of his country and 

 four and sometimes five days' hunting a week require. I asked him 

 one day how many of his hounds he thought were on an average 

 cut by flints after a hard run, when he told me at least one half. 



Foster, the huntsman, was brought up under that renowned old 

 sportsman, Mr. Smith, of Sholebrook Lodge in Northamptonshire, 

 who farmed the Duke of Grafton's hounds, and rode after him as 

 pad groom when in his eighty-ninth year ! John Claydon then 

 hunted them, and was succeeded by Tom Eose, the present hunts- 

 man. Foster then lived ten years with Lord Southampton, whence 

 he went to Lord Foley ; and it was with his Loi-dship's pack, as first 

 whipper-in, that I first knew him, and where he greatly distinguished 

 himself both as a sportsman and a rider. He has been nine years 

 with Mr. Villebois' hounds, with which he has given the greatest 

 satisfaction to the country and to his master. 



Having seen most of the best packs of hounds this country has 

 produced for these last twenty years, it may not be presuming to say 

 that I have seen many of the best huntsmen of that period ; but I 

 do not imagine that any of them could have excelled Foster, with 

 his present experience, as a woodland huntsman. He has an 

 excellent eye as well as ear to his hounds ; is very quick and clever 

 in his casts ; and his language to hounds is delightfully sporting and 

 good. He is now only in his 40th year. 



Foster, however, has one great advantage with Mr. Villebois — he 

 is uncommonly well assisted. I am no man for a pun ; and still 

 more ignorant of the lingo called " slang ; " but I must be allowed to 

 say, that his first whipper-in is quite " a top Sawyer*." His second 

 whipper-in, John Jennings, is very good ; and on my asking Foster 

 whether he were any relation to Ben Jennings, who hunts Mr. 

 Farquharson's hounds, he told me he was not. "He is the first of 

 his family, Sir," said he, " that ever was in our line." 



* His name is Saivyer ; and the Hampshire people called him Mr. Sliawyer. 



