T!he I'rotter, 121 



lasted us over the best part of the stage. The next on the pro- 

 gramme generally was, "A southerly wind and a cloudy sky," and 

 here the old man had the whole performance to himself, and many 

 a gaping rustic would leave off his work and stare at us in stupid 

 astonishment as we drove by him, the old man waving his whip in 

 all the ecstacies of " Have at him," " hi, wind him," " my steady 

 good hounds." I recollect one evening at tliis very part of the 

 performance we happened to meet the hounds coming home from 

 hunting. They turned down a by-lane into the turnpike. Just 

 as we drove by, a scream from the huntsman, which seemed 

 to rend the skies, caused the old bokicker to start and nearly 

 pull the reins out of my hands, and a poor old lady, who was 

 sitting just behind me, almost jumped off her seat as she screamed 

 out, "La', let me get down, I think you're all mad." We pulled 

 up, not, however, to let the old lady down, but to allow the old man 

 to give us one whole verse of the song ; and as he had now the 

 huntsman and two whips to help him find his fox he soon got away 

 with him, and the ratthng view-halloa which the second whip 

 hurled after us as we drove off, rings in my ears to this very day. 

 "There's dog music for you," exclaimed the old boy, in his seventh 

 heaven, as he waved his black JolifFe triumphantly. This was a 

 standing joke down our road for years after. 



" Tom Moody" used to come next on our list, and here I was 

 allowed to join in chorus ; and there was something rather novel in 

 the way we used to get through " Harry Bluff" as a duet. The 

 old man's fund of songs appeared to be inexhaustible, and he never 

 seemed happy except when singing them. They were chiefly, 

 however, of the sporting order ^ and, except a few old national 

 English baUads, such as "The Death of Nelson," " Harry Bluff," 

 and a few others of that sort, he did not care much to sing any one 

 which had not a little dog language in it. 



Thus the milestones were merrily passed, and thus our journeys 

 used merrily to roll on. Oh, those were happy days and happy 

 journeys, deny it who can ; and although we certainly did not get 

 over our ground quite so quickly as in these days of steam, we had 



