REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 93 



who were drafted on account of misfortune or years, 

 and not for any fault ; by this means to avoid the 

 importation at least of vice; the complement of 

 hounds to be thereafter filled up by unentered 

 puppies. Cub-hunting in the Oakley or Bedford- 

 shire country had, from time immemorial, com- 

 menced in the first week in July, the stump-bred 

 foxes by that time knowing as much country as an 

 earth-bred one does in October ; and with the space 

 for entry so afforded, I hoped at least" to have some- 

 thing like a pack to work with by the first week 

 in November. A body of hounds were soon col- 

 lected at the Cranford kennel : Colonel Wyndham, 

 Sir John Cope, and others, gave me old hounds, 

 or I purchased drafted young ones. The "Vine" 

 also contributed to me, and so did Lord Lonsdale. 

 I also got, but I forget where I got them, a hound 

 named Proctor, and one called Stamford, with Sir 

 Richard Sutton's mark on the former, and I think 

 on the latter. Proctor had been evidently drafted 

 from unsound action, and Stamford from old age; 

 but they were useful to me from the splendid way 

 in which they both drew. Old Stamford's soft and 

 prolonged note, when he found a fox, sweeps by my 

 ear now ; and often and often had I to cheer the 

 young ones to him throughout my first fox-hunting 

 season. AVhat he must have been in his youth — 

 I am speaking of the years '29 or '30, — I can 

 easily guess ; and if these pages meet the eye of the 

 gentleman who bred him, he will accept this tribute 

 to the memory of as gallant, as sensible, and as 

 attached and faithful a hound as ever killed a fox. 

 I am not quite sure that Stamford had the " S" 

 branded on his side ; but the mark, though scarred, 



