4 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



as to give the maudlin meddlers, and would-be over good ones 

 of the succeeding day and of the present day, a hold for putting 

 the prize-fight down. They fixed a false delinquency on the 

 word prize-fight, totally forgetting that every village boxing- 

 match, arising from a quarrel, was always for a prize, as one 

 countryman invariably put down all he had in his pocket, and 

 dared his antagonist to " cover it," while at the same time they 

 as invariably took the fair and open rules of the prize ring as 

 their guide in the settlement of the affair. Of this I am 

 positively certain, by my experience both as a magistrate and 

 foreman of the grand jury of my county, that since the prize- 

 fight and village boxing-match have been put down, the more 

 serious and foreign custom of an appeal to the knife has super- 

 vened. 



Among the laughable scenes of my boyish years at Cranford, 

 were two that occurred with that good-humoured vocalist, Mr. 

 William Knyvet, and the late Mr. Duruset. Dumset was 

 entrusted with a gun, one day in October, and told to shoot ; 

 and we were beating a field of potatoes that, ere the disease 

 was known, afforded cover above the knees. We knew that 

 nothing valuing its life, except a pheasant, ought to be in front 

 of the singer ; so finding that he was not keeping his line, I 

 desired him to come on. We halted the line to get him up, 

 and then for the first time I became aware that he was walking 

 like a man with a very bad string-halt, his toe clearing the 

 extreme tops of the haulm. Having asked him why he did 

 not keep up, and wherefore he had such remarkable action, 

 44 Action ! " he replied ; " come on, indeed ! It's all very well 

 for you to do as you please, but it won't do for me to spoil the 

 peasant's vegetables." 



One day word had been brought to me that a mad or over- 

 driven ox was in the fields adjoining the park, that he had 

 tossed an old woman. The drivers prayed me to shoot him. 

 Knyvet and Duruset jumped at my invitation to " see me shoot 

 a wild bull," and I am doubtful if Duruset did not expect a 

 seat in some gallery, under an indistinct idea of a Spanish bull- 



