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CHAPTEK VI. 



" Perplex thy soul no more with cares below, 

 For what will pelf avail ! 

 Thy courser paws the ground, 

 Each beagle cocks his tail, 

 They spend their mouths around." 

 Oh Somerville, good God ! why sing you so — 

 Each sportsman's ear to wound ? 



The time for which I had agreed to hunt the country 

 for a thousand a year with the Oakley Chib was now 

 concluded, and the Club intimated to me that they 

 should look out for another master of hounds. I 

 cut that very short at once, by telling them that the 

 country did not belong to the Club ; it belonged to 

 the proprietors of covers, and to me so long as I had 

 their permission ; and if I found any other master of 

 hounds endeavouring to undermine me, and in nego- 

 tiation with them, the matter would be personal be- 

 tween him and me. The tenant-farmers, too, took my 

 part strongly ; and they addressed a memorial, nu- 

 merously signed by tenants cultivating many thousand 

 acres, to his Grace of Bedford, as the leading proprie- 

 tor, expressing their wishes that the proprietors would 

 continue to support me, and saying, much interested as 

 they were in it, " I had their best wishes to a man." 

 The document was very complimentary to me ; and 

 considering the acreage farmed by my yeomen 

 friends, and the good-will now kindly exhibited to- 

 wards me by a number of gentlemen owning covers, 



