32 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



Berkeley," and retained our livery ; and it has ever 

 been a marvel to me, why, in the present establishment 

 at Berkeley Castle, where the old livery, on account 

 of the ancient halls, had a right to shine in all its 

 wonted brilliancy, it should not have been kept up. 

 To show the increase of packs of hounds in the last 

 eighty or hundred years, my father used to hunt all 

 the country from Kensington Gardens to Berkeley 

 Castle and Bristol. Scratch Wood, a cover cfose to 

 Wormwood Scrubs, was the nearest cover to London ; 

 but I have heard old Tom Oldaker say, that, while 

 with my father, he found a fox in Scratch Wood, 

 and lost him in the rough ground and cover in 

 Kensino-ton Gardens. There was a kennel at Cran- 

 ford, I believe a kennel at Gerrard's Cross in my 

 father's time, and I know there was one at Nettlebed. 

 Where else the hounds used to put up in that wide 

 stretch of country I know not, but I suppose occa- 

 sionally at inns. The tawny coat was only worn by 

 the huntsmen and whippers in, and the diiference of 

 the remarkable colour I have since found to be of the 

 utmost advantage to hounds. When all are in red, tlie 

 hound's eye, if a hound is thrown out, cannot direct 

 him at once to his huntsman, his nose is his chief 

 dependence ; but if the men are in a different hue, 

 which stands out peculiarly from the rest, a hound 

 at a mile distance will come the shortest way to 

 where his presence is required. I had an oppor- 

 tunity to observe the effect of the bright tawny 

 coat on pheasants. One dsij I went in my hunting 

 dress to feed them in a cover close to the kennel, and 

 ever after that, the instant they saw the remarkable 

 dress that had once brought them their food, they 

 would follow it even to the kennel door, I turned 



