276 THE COMPLETE FOXHUNTER 



porters knew the master far too well to interfere in 

 any way. 



But we recollect one experience of mobbing, and of 

 fighting as well with this pack. By request of the 

 late Mr. Anthony Maynard, then master of the North 

 Durham foxhounds, Mr. Greenwell had taken his 

 hounds to Newton Hall, near Durham, and as Mr. 

 Maynard then had six hundred acres of land in hand 

 it was thought that there would be little chance of 

 getting on to the ground of a neighbour who was 

 known to be unfriendly. The first hare, however, 

 took hounds straight to the forbidden ground, and the 

 first that we, who were comparative strangers, knew of 

 the ill-feeling was finding ourselves confronted by half a 

 dozen labourers armed with pitchforks. Hounds were 

 running hard, and it was not difficult to dodge the 

 opposing forces by jumping a fence, but almost imme- 

 diately the hare began to circle back, and was seen to 

 lie up in the hedge near which the labourers, headed 

 by their master, were standing. Hounds checked 

 at the fence, and one or two were knocked about 

 before Mr. Greenwell could get them away, while, to 

 make matters worse, a lot of ladies who were following 

 the hunt on foot had now reached the scene of action 

 and were being soundly abused by the farmer. 



For a moment matters looked very awkward, but 

 the situation was saved by the arrival of a well-known 

 wine merchant who was also a hunting man. He, 

 it appeared, was the wrathful farmer's purveyor of 

 whiskey, and coming on the scene when the dispute 

 was most violent, he shouted out at the top of his voice, 



"Mr. , if you don't beg these ladies' pardon at 



once, I shall physic the whiskey you ordered yesterday." 

 Now the speaker and the farmer were firm friends, and 



