122 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



Mr. Dansey and the hounds heard the holloa, and, 

 one of the foxes hanging by the quarters in some 

 pahngs, on the pack coming up he was killed. 

 After this a very funny caricature was published 

 by McLean in the Hay market, which, for all I know, 

 is extant still, of an old gentleman looking out of a 

 window in his night dress, with a vixen fox of quaint 

 deportment immediately over his head, almost touch- 

 in o- the tassel of his nightcap with her brush, wliile 

 the fat keeper underneath the window is told " that 

 his master is sure that he smells a fox." These 

 foxes for years had been in the habit of sleeping on 

 the roof of the very man who searched his fields and 

 plantations for them all day. 



Throughout my second season in Bedfordshire 

 foxes came, as I said before, much often er to hand, 

 and I had a very good season for sport. Still the 

 Oakley Club would not allow that I did anything 

 well, and for ever some or other of its members, not 

 all of them, were making light of the runs. One day, 

 when the country was very heavy, we fell in with one 

 of the severest runs in pace, continuance, and dis- 

 tance I ever saw in my life ; changing foxes, running 

 all over the Crossalbans country, and leaving off near 

 Chellington, in the direction of Bletsoe. The effect 

 of this run was, that one of the gentlemen, who de- 

 nied me any sport or merit as a huntsman, though 

 he was neither a good nor a hard rider, killed his 

 horse ; and I am sorry to say, one of my whippers-in 

 killed his also. This was a stopper to one detracting 

 mouth at least ; but it also put into my stables a 

 horse belonging to a boot-maker and small farmer at 

 Harrold, named Allen, who eventually paid me well 

 for the loss I had sustained. This horse was poor and 



