308 NIMRODS HLXTIXG TOUR 



dine together once a month, and the Wednesday I was at Beverley 

 happened to be a Ckib day. We had a large muster of Members ; 

 the dinner, at the Beverley Arms Inn, was very deserving of praise ; 

 the wine, the property of the Club, so-so ; and a ball at the assembly 

 rooms for a finish. 



The following would be a very posing question to me : — " Who do 

 you esteem the most zealous fox-hunter — the man fondest of every- 

 thing relating to hounds and hunting, that you have met with in 

 life?" I think I should reply, either Squire Osbaldeston or Tom 

 Hodgson ; for I really think the question rests between those gentle- 

 men. I need not say that it has not been in the power of Mr. 

 Hodgson to hunt hounds six days a- week, as Mr. O. has done ; and 

 for the best of all reasons ; namely, every one knows he has not 

 had the stuff to do it with ; but by my soul I believe, if he could 

 keep his eyes open without sleep, he would be with his hounds by 

 day and by night. No hen appears prouder of her brood than he 

 does of his staunch little pack ; and well indeed do they requite his 

 pains. Perhaps no man in England does so much work with so 

 small a kennel of hounds, for, with only twenty-two couples of old, 

 and nine of young hounds, he hunted three times a-week through- 

 out the whole of last season ; and such has been about the state of 

 the case since he has had the Holderness country. With this 

 strength, he killed his thirty brace of foxes last hunting season, 

 which I call gi'eat doings. 



Encouragement is the soul of enterprise ; and although Mr. 

 Hodgson's subscription is not more than 1000/. per annum, yet he 

 is supported by the good wishes of all descriptions of persons, and 

 particularly by those of the yeomen and farmers — no bad criterion 

 by-the-bye of doing things right and straightforward between man 

 and man. 



Mr. Hodgson, I should imagine, spends more time with his 

 hounds than any gentlejiian-hnntsmnn in England, and, I may 

 venture to add, or than any other. He attributes, indeed, the extra- 

 ordinary work they do for him to his walking them out so often on 

 non-hunting days, by which all stiffness of the joints and soreness of 

 the feet are greatly relieved. Dogs, we know, of all descriptions 

 are much given to sleep on a full belly ; and on the morrow after a 



