wo REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



name wlio was with him then in Wiltshire; but I 

 liked what I saw of him veiy much. We worked 

 too-ether one day in tlie Great Ridge, and no man was 

 more pleased than Mr. Codrington. Before I was 

 used to ]\Ir. Codrington's way of talking to himself, 

 we ran a fox in the Great Ridge, and then sud- 

 denly went away over the down with a scent. The 

 hounds ran hard for fifteen minutes, and then in- 

 explicably threw up. They did not know me, and 

 there was no one " to put 'em along," if I had known 

 w^hat to do; but so sudden was the check, with 

 nothing that I could see to cause it, that, had they been 

 my own hounds, I should scarcely have known what 

 remedy to apply. I sat looking on, with some suspicion 

 of riot, when, a long way off down the wind, I heard the 

 most painful groans, mingled with deprecations, and 

 my first idea was, that it came from a delirious and suf- 

 fering fellow creature, dragged, perhaps, in his stirrup. 

 I could not see the person who seemed in such mortal 

 agony for the undulations of the downs ; but presently 

 I heard the hollow sound of a horse's feet, and over 

 the rise came Mr. Codrington, all right, but moaning 

 dreadfully. I set off to meet him, anxiously inquiring, 

 " What was the matter ?" " Matter ! oh. Lord ! " he 

 said. " Come up, horse," and then, rolling in his 

 saddle, he cried, " ]\latter ! oh, Lord ! it's nothing but 

 a hare." He called the hounds ; I put 'em to him, 

 and we returned to the woodland fox. I afterwards 

 met Mr. Codrington at Wilverley when he hunted the 

 New Forest ; and, observing that he was on a queer- 

 looking animal for such a weight, I asked, " What 

 that was he was on? " " Oh, Lord !" he cried, " all I 

 know is, it's not a hunter." 



The oddest system I ever saw with hounds was Mr. 

 William Wyndham's, and he occasionally broached 



