A¥ARWICKSHIRE 185 



last. The horses, however, were all so distressed, that, when 

 ascending the Hill, not one of them w^ould face a small fence 

 until a little puff was afforded them, when Mr. Cockbill got over it. 

 Mr. Wyatt, Mr. H. Campbell, Mr. Fellowes, and Mr. Sheldon, the 

 flower of the Warwickshire riders, were all unfortunate in not getting 

 away. 



The next morning (Sunday) I accompanied Mr. Hay to the kennel, 

 to learn the state of affairs, and we found that all the hounds but 

 one had arrived. I had never seen this kennel before. Barring its 

 situation (at Butler's Marson, about a mile on the right of the road 

 from Warwick to Banbury, and about ten miles from the former 

 place) — too much in the dirt — it is quite sufficient for the purpose, 

 and the stables very good indeed. In the latter were twenty-three 

 hunters for Mr. Hay and his two men, and I consider them very 

 well adapted for the purpose. There did not appear to be one low- 

 bred horse among them ; several of them quite thorough-bred ; and, 

 I might almost say, all possessing bone and substance, without 

 which they are of no use in Warwickshire. They are in the hands 

 of an excellent groom, . . . Morris, whom I remember when in the 

 service of Mr. Lechmere Charlton and Mr. Hornyold. 



I was glad to see Jack Wood (the kennel huntsman) looking in 

 good health ; but I did not like him so well in his white jean coat, 

 and on his feet, as I did last year in the bit of pink and the black 

 cap on the old white mare. There, he was quite at home, one of 

 the neatest handlers of a nag that I ever came alongside of in the 

 field, and, in all respects, clever. In his present situation, however, 

 he is well placed ; and I considered Mr. Hay's hounds very fit to go. 



I very much like the appearance of Mr. Hay's first whipper-in. 

 Will Boxall. He abounds in zeal, without w^hich nothing can be 

 done well. To a question I put to him as we rode along with the 

 hounds, he made me an answer which stamped him for a good one. 

 " You must have been tired last night, blundering so many hours 

 in the dark, were you not, Will? " said I. — " Why, no, Sir," replied 

 Will, " I was not; I was so afeard about the hounds never coming 

 home." Thus Shakspeare says, 



" To business that v:e love we rise betime. 

 And so to it with deliarht." 



