216 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



the deception the owner of the dog had been guilty 

 of. My greyhound Brenda (she sleeps in the sun by 

 my side now), who won the Oaks at the Greenway, in 

 1842, for a friend of mine, the first season she came 

 out, ran cunning, after winning, from that very hour. 

 The greyhound of Mr. Lawrence's, whom she beat 

 for that stake, beat her in a match the same day. 

 The course was over the same ground and to the 

 same cover, and Brenda, knoAving where the hare was 

 going to, took care always in every turn to wait and 

 be next the wood. From being made a drawing- 

 room pet, she became au fait at everything, would 

 retrieve to the gun both feather and fur, and would 

 walk at my heels in the midst of hares without run- 

 ning them. At one of the Greenway meetings, when 

 the hares in five courses out of six were beating the 

 dogs, I ofi'ered to back Brenda single-handed against 

 a hare. The match was made for a particular field, 

 where there were known good ones, and as she 

 was to go loose at my horse's heels, my adversaries 

 counted also on a wild hare and a long start. They 

 did not know that unless I bade her to go, Brenda, 

 on the slightest sign from me, would remain steady. 

 I therefore took very good care that the hare she saw 

 had no advantage ; and one jumping up at a fair dis- 

 tance, Brenda killed her single-handed, and I pock- 

 eted a good many half-crowns and agricultural shil- 

 lings. The annual festival of the Greenway is the 

 only semi-public meeting which I now attend. There 

 the stakes are within a limited means, and the betting 

 as low as the betters please ; we cannot hurt each 

 other, while at the same time enough interest is kept 

 up in the competition for prizes to make the meeting- 

 most agreeable. The squire keeps open house for all 



