86 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



who ought to accord it, but is often foiled in all his 

 endeavours, and called a fool into the bargain. A young 

 gentleman who had mounted his scarlet for the first 

 season, was once finding fault with my performances, 

 and turning to an old and experienced fox hunter, said 

 " 1 don't think that chap (meaning me) knows anything 

 about his business." " How the deuce should he," re- 

 plied my friend, *' he has been all his life nearly at it, 

 and I never heard he was considered a fool, either at 

 school or college ! ! " This satisfied the young gentleman 

 who had been rather unsuccessful in his little go the last 

 term, and had left Oxford in disgust because it was too 

 slow a place for him. 



Some masters of excitable temper cannot help giving 

 a bit of damson pie sometimes, but it is better left alone, 

 and if a man cannot hunt his hounds without swearing, I 

 should advise him to let others do it who can keep their 

 temper. I once, when young and ardent, administered 

 a dose of this kind to a very worthy farmer, without at 

 that time knowing who he was. We were running the 

 only fox left in that part of the country, and he was 

 trying to break where this man had posted himself with 

 some others. I had halloed to them before to leave the 

 spot, but they either did not hear me or understand what 

 I meant, and at last one of them turned the fox back, 

 right into the hounds' mouths. I could hold it no longer, 

 but out came a rattler at Farmer Steers for a fool. 

 What's that you are saying, young gentleman ?" cried 

 the farmer, " I didn't come out to be d — d." The re- 

 joinder was on my lips, "Then go home and be d — d,'* 

 as a certain squire once said to a sporting tradesman 

 who was doing mischief in the New Forest; but I 



