82 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



he used to ride Sultan when he got a mount on him, 

 on account of his sluggishness, — the whip not much 

 of a defence against the rail. It was a pretty thing to 

 see the collected and resolute gentleman going up to 

 this " savage man proper," as the heralds would say, 

 who for a moment looked a tire-eating giant ; and then, 

 when my brother approached to within a few yards 

 of him, to behold the rail thrown away, and the 

 savage man no longer proper, but in a dastard flight. 

 That I knew would not save him, and finding my 

 brother gaining on him, he threw himself on the 

 ground, in the hope of escaping punishment. At 

 that moment the hounds hit the scent, and the last 

 thing we saw of it was my brother standing over the 

 man, and with the lash of the sharp handwhip, find- 

 ing out the soft places afibrded by the interstices 

 of waistcoat and waistband, and knee button and 

 legging. The fellow had his punishment, and, thanks 

 to the able leaping of liis horse, Henry Womb well 

 escaped without a fall. 



During all this time, notices from the Harrow 

 country kept coming in ; a dinner to the farmers, 

 suggested by Messrs. Norton and Norman of Uxbridge, 

 coursing to all who kept or could borrow greyhounds, 

 and shooting, with presents of game and occasionally 

 venison, could not avert it; and 1 saw that the 

 public run was in full force against the public fund 

 ray field had raised to defray all damage. 



In the early part of my stag-hunting career, two of 

 the Harrow farmers, who prided themselves on being 

 able to shoot, I take it, presuming on my youth and 

 their little knowledge of my brother Henry, challenged 

 us to a match at pigeons, at the house of their friend a 

 Mr. Harper at Greenford. AYe arranged the sum for 



