SHROPSHIRE 201 



donbt, for the purpose), muffled up in a rough great coat and a 

 shawl, and looked on. The fox was found ; and, unfortunately for 

 Sir Bellingham, took a short ring, but returned, and his hounds 

 came to a check close to where he was sitting upon his horse. 

 Will Beck (the huntsman 2^'>'o tempore) not being up with his hounds, 

 the Baronet cast them, and recovered his fox. In three fields they 

 checked again, and Beck made a slow but by no means a brilliant 

 cast. Sir Bellingham saw all this from the hill ; and, no longer a 

 looker-on, he cantered down to his pack, and hit off his fox again. 

 Things still went on but awkwardly. Another error was observed ; 

 when Sir Bellingham — annoyed that a large field should be dis- 

 appointed of their sport when there was a possibility of having it — 

 taking a horn from a whipper-in (for he could not speak to them), 

 got to work again. The hounds mended their pace : down went the 

 shawl in the middle of a field. They improved upon it : down went 

 the rough great coat in another field. He then stuck to his hounds 

 in a long hunting run of an hour and a half over a very strongly- 

 fenced country, and had gotten his fox dead beat before him, when 

 he was halloo'ed away by one of his own men to a fresh fox under 

 the Newton Hills. 



Now what was to be done ? The excitement that had carried him 

 thus far was gone, and it was all but who-whoop. With every 

 appearance of exhaustion, and a face as pale as if he were dead, he 

 sat himself down on a bank, and faintly exclaimed, "How I am 

 to get home Heaven only knows ' " I am sorry to say that this 

 gallant sportsman had nearly as bad a fall as this last season in 

 Shropshire ; and I am still more sorry to add that he feels the 

 effects of each of them to this day. 



When speaking of Sir Bellingham Graham as a huntsman — now 

 of some years' standing — I shall again confine myself to the echo of 

 the public voice, as comparisons are odious. He is universally 

 allowed to be quite at the top of his profession, and " an artist " of 

 more than common fame. One advantage has always attended him : 

 he has ridden the best of horses, which, with his method of piloting 

 them, has enabled him never to be long without an eye upon his 

 hounds. Were I to be asked whether any amendment could be 

 made in him, I should say that he is a little too quiet when drawing, 



