THE WRONG SYSTEM 137 



Reminiscences I am aware of a scene with the Pytchley hounds 

 precisely similar to that which happened with Sir Harry Scatter- 

 cashe's, in regard to leaving the hounds to take care of them- 

 selves on a hunting-day. It was one in the morning before all 

 got home, luncheon having made hounds, men, and, they told 

 me, horses, totally independent on each other. I remember the 

 first time I ever saw Jack Stephens in the field was when he was 

 with Mr. Osbaldeston. Mr. Gaskill was out, who once rode a 

 magnificent burst with me, when with my hounds at Cranford I 

 found an outlying stag, that I think had escaped from one of 

 my barns where I kept them, to the woods about Pinner. We 

 ran straight over the Harrow Vale for Hayes, and each of us 

 stopped our horses. I mention the presence of this gentleman, 

 to tell a very funny thing said to him that day by " the Squire." 

 It was a vixen fox, very heavy, that the hounds were running ; 

 she ran very short, and the Squire was sharp for her death ; he 

 did something in aid of it, when Mr. Gaskill said, in a voice of 

 deprecation, " Oh, Squire, Squire, it's a V." " Well, d n me ! " 

 cried Mr. Osbaldeston, " what of that ? there are W's enough 

 left for you." 



They killed that fox, and I thought I never saw anything 

 so slack and spiritless as the giving of the fox to the hounds, or 

 anything much more indifferent than the hounds were about 

 her. Jack set his foot on the fox in the middle of a field, and 

 rated any hound who came near him ; and having padded and 

 brushed her, took her carelessly up, held her over his head, 

 holloaed to the hounds, and when they were only half around 

 him, tossed her down. It was as much as they would do to 

 break her up. This carelessness on the death of a fox is bad ; 

 a huntsman, for the sake of his hounds, can't quickly make too 

 much of him ; he should not be long about it, but what he did 

 do should appear to be done with delight, and the hounds 

 should be roused to excitement. I always placed my back 

 against a tree, or hedge, and waving the hounds back with a 

 whip, but never hitting one hard, I cheered them all the time 

 my man was cutting off the brush and pads, and scalping the 



