LETTER XXVIII. 313 



the hounds were running into their game ; but if old 

 Workman (a large blue mottled hound, with a mouth as 

 wide as an alligator) once caught hold of poor puss, the 

 currant jelly was saved for that dressing at least. 



Views should be avoided as much as possible, but in 

 drawing for your game over open ground, or in beating 

 hedge-rows, they will occur. It is advisable in beating 

 hedges to get them tried by some man on foot or horse- 

 back before the hounds ; there is not much risk then of 

 a hare being chopped, and you can lay the hounds on 

 quietly when she is out of sight. A pack of harriers, to 

 deserve the name, should be kept strictly to their own 

 game. Neither should they be allowed to hunt either 

 fox, red deer, or red herring — they then become a lot of 

 curs, and are fit for nothing. Although often longing 

 for a gallop in my younger days after Mr. Reynolds, the 

 governor was inexorable on this point, and never would 

 admit of the least deviation from our legitimate drama. 



Upon one occasion we had, during the vacation, got a 

 fox sent down from Oxford as a treat, and had calculated 

 upon turning him down at the end of a small covert, 

 hallooing the hounds away and giving the governor the 

 slip ; but our plans were most unpleasantly defeated, by 

 the unfortunate fox being stifled in the bag before his 

 arrival. As misfortunes seldom come singly, it so hap- 

 pened that we were from home the day this fox was 

 brought, and the man fell in with my father, who soon 

 discovered the truth, but said nothing about it until 

 after dinner, when he remarked, " I think you youno- 

 gentlemen expected a present to-day from Oxford." It 

 was no use denying it, for we saw the mischief in his eye. 

 Ringing the bell, he desired the footman to bring in the 



