1 82 RIDING, DRIVING AND KINDRED SPORTS 



seem readily to learn. Thus Rhapsody becomes 

 '' Rampasdy," Monarch " Munka," and so on. 

 People who send out hounds do not, however, 

 always send their names with them, and I 

 once met a draft at an up-country station which 

 had not a name between them. Apparently 

 one savapfe old doo^-hound so resented this 

 as to begin the proceedings by flying at me 

 as soon as he was let out of the horsebox. 

 However, in a week they were re-named, and 

 a fortnight later were handy enough to be 

 hunted and become a very useful pack, with 

 which we showed some capital sport. Every 

 now and then, however, one gets hold of 

 hounds which decline altogether to enter to 

 jackal. 



The greatest nuisance is a mute hound, 

 of which we get not a few. Yet that master 

 must be unlucky indeed who does not get at 

 least one huntsman's friend, and the names of 

 Victory and Villager I still gratefully remember. 

 Villager was a big spotted hound with a 

 lovely tongue and a fine nose which could 

 always be trusted ; while Victory was seldom 

 wrong, only it was necessary to keep near her, 

 for though not exactly mute she had the quietest 

 sort of muffled note I ever heard, but her stern, 

 which had lost its tip, was a most infallible 

 sign : directly she shot off running and snuffling. 



