104 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



covers, however far off, away go the foxes he has the care of. 

 A fox has, as I have said before, a large amount of reasoning 

 faculty in his beautiful head, the very expression of his eye tells 

 it, and it is further proved by the impossibility of the stuffer or 

 preserver of beasts and birds to give the specimen its crafty and 

 observant expression ; it is also beyond the art of the painter. 



While hunting Bedfordshire a curious circumstance happened 

 to me in regard to a little boy, the son of a labourer, who used 

 to attend the cub-hunting on foot ; his name was Darlowe. 

 This boy would neither work nor be kept at home if my fixture 

 was within reach, but there he was in the rides of the woods, 

 attending to the hounds, and watching for a view if needed. 

 In only seeing the hounds out, so quick was he, and fond of the 

 sport, that he learned every name in the pack and knew each 

 hound individually in a remarkably short space of time, and 

 could speak to them like a sportsman. He pleased me very 

 much, and I thought of taking him into my service when old 

 enough; but his appearance one morning in his pursuit of 

 learning under difficulties accelerated his rise in the world, and 

 made me employ him at once. I expected him out, as Odell 

 Wood was near his cottage, but he was not there at meeting, 

 which did not much surprise me, as he had once or twice been 

 late, his appearance at cover delayed from the fact of his 

 having been locked up by his mother, to prevent his going, and 

 his being obliged to break out or descend from the window of 

 the cottage. The hounds had found and were running, when 

 all at once came a figure capering all alive over the nettles, with 

 such elastic hops to escape stings, and flying garments, that my 

 startlish mare Freyia very nearly bolted with me. This was the 

 boy in nothing but his shirt, the rest of his wardrobe having 

 been taken and locked up over night, by way of hostages to 

 ensure his retention. In this undress, a prey to flies, gnats, and 

 harvest bugs, and tortured by nettles, the boy continued the 

 chase, and, to save him a thrashing and to reward him, I bade 

 him tell his mother to send him to the kennel that afternoon, 

 and I would take him into service as an aid to the hounds in 



