166 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



tinel caiiie to be away, he said, "he had bolted 

 one day from the kennel-door," and though he 

 had been seen, the nistant he saw a red coat he 

 was ofF like a shot. The fact was, they had been 

 knocking the hounds about in kennel and out of 

 kennel, there being a great deal more beer than 

 brains, at times, under the caps and hats of that 

 establishment, in addition to considerable ignorance 

 in the treatment of hounds. The return of the 

 one-year-hunted bitch. Bribery, to my kennel from 

 the Pychley, and their declared inability to retain 

 her, was now fully accounted for ; and the more ac- 

 counted for still, when I gave her to Mr. Dansey, 

 whose kennel was but aljout five miles from my 

 house, instead of upwards of twenty, with whom she 

 ever afterwards remained. So roughly had Sentinel 

 been used, that the very sight of anything like a red 

 coat drove him at once into the Brigstock forest. 

 Jack had tried to reclaim him by taking out the 

 hounds to where he had last heard of him, naturally 

 enough thinking that Sentinel would join his own 

 companions, when, if he had, I have not the least 

 doubt but that the moment Jack or Webb could have 

 caught him, they luould have flogged him for runnmg 

 away ! But Sentinel would not hear of them at any 

 price ; and after some absence, when I returned, in 

 October, to Brigstock, Sentinel remained wild. I 

 had often looked for him : wild and timid as he was, 

 confirmed, indeed, in the habits of a wild beast, I 

 felt sure, if I could get the voice to him which had 

 never mentioned his name but to cheer him for doing 

 Avell, or spoken to him but in play, before he began 

 to fly from the now-dreaded presence of man, that he 

 would have come to me ; but, unluckily, I never saw 

 him but once or twice, and then at a distance, while 



