98 THE WILLEY LONG RUNS. 



" ' I know your dogs are stout and good, 

 That they'll run me like the wind ! 

 But I'll tread lightly on the land, 

 And leave no scent behind.' " 



Otlier verses describe the hunt, and Reynard, on 



being run. to earth, asking for quarter on condition 



that 



*' He will both promise and fulfil, 

 Neither ducks nor geese to kill, 

 Nor lambs upon the hiU ; " 



and how bold Ranter, with little faith in his pro- 

 mise, " seized him by the neck and refused to let 

 him go." It is one of many specimens of a like 

 kind still current among old people. An old man, 

 speaking of Mr. Stubbs, for whom, he remarked, the 

 day was never too long, and who at its close would 

 sometimes urge his brother sportsmen to draw for a 

 fresh fox, with the reminder that there was a moon 

 to kill by, said, " One of the rummiest things my 

 father, who hunted with the Squire, told me, was a 

 run by moonlight. I'm not sure, but I think Mr. 

 Dansey, Mr. Childe, and Mr. Stubbs, if not Mr. 

 Meynell, were at the Hall. They came sometimes, 

 and sometimes the Squire visited them. Howsome- 

 ever, there were three or four couples of fresh 

 hounds at the kennels, and it was proposed to have 



