i io REMINISCENCES OF 



Roots, will assist you. The present company are 

 invited to return here this day fortnight." Mr. 

 Harris was also there. We all returned to Egges- 

 ford for the experiment. In the morning there was 

 sharpish frost and a little snow on the ground. I 

 went with Russell to fetch his hounds, which were 

 at a farmhouse near. I think Mr. Harris's servant 

 was with the hounds. He had a terrier in his 

 pocket, and I remember Russell saying to him, 

 " Always cheer hounds to cry," and I never forgot 

 it. 



When we got to Eggesford, Roots, with twenty- 

 five couple of Mr. Fellowes' hounds, was waiting on 

 the lawn. They were all dog-hounds, about twenty- 

 five inches high. Russell had twenty-five couple, 

 little bitches, mostly black-and-tan. It was a curious 

 sight when the two packs met. The dogs stood on 

 tiptoes with backs up, growling, and looked as big as 

 Jackasses ; the little bitches ran round them, and 

 under them, and played about, and it was a long 

 time before they would settle. At last off we went, 

 drew several coverts blank and found about two 

 o'clock. The snow by that time had melted, and 

 made a little moisture on the surface, but there was 

 not much scent. The hounds ran very jealous of 

 each other, and in the small fields looked like a field 

 full of hounds, and you could see by the drooping of 

 their sterns which were carrying the line. Now a 

 big one was first, now a little one, and the best of 

 both sizes cut out the work. At high banks the big 

 dogs had the advantage, at hedges the little ones 



