PREIACE. Vll 



stretched in the shade. To my horror, I heard an 

 order given to the Avhippers-in, to " lay into them," 

 which was accordingly done ; but as the lash does 

 not increase a hound's appetite nor arouse his eager- 

 ness, though the pack sought their huntsman to 

 escape the whip, very few of them touched the fox. 

 They were, in fact, whipped for having killed the fox, 

 and could have understood their punishment in no 

 other light. I remember reporting what I had 

 witnessed to the present Duke of Bedford, who 

 agreed with me in repudiating the act of the hunts- 

 man. Such want of discrimination as this, I would 

 caution the rising generation to avoid ; and how I 

 should have dealt with a pack of hounds so situated, 

 must be gleaned from, pages to come : it is not a 

 legitimate theme for a Preface. 



While writing this work, I am sitting in my study at 

 Beacon Lodge, the wide and open window admitting 

 the southerly air fresh from the blue wave of Christ- 

 church Bay. There are but seventy yards of short 

 turf and lawn between me and the edge of the cliff. 

 The furthest pet from me is my grey forest-pony, 

 Dingle, calmly cropping the short greensward, 

 while round her legs are friskhig a quantity of rab- 

 bits. Here and there some beautiful little bantams, 

 with their chickens, are in search of insects ; the 

 group varied by several hybrids bred from the 

 bantam and pheasant. Nearer to the house are rab- 

 bits stretched in the sun, and basking in company 

 with Brenda, the pet of the drawing-room, a grey- 

 hound who won the Puppy stakes of her year at the 

 Greenway, in Gloucestershire. A New Forest fawn, 

 now approximating to a doe, and, locally, almost the 

 last of her race, bounds in play here and there, where 



