An Eccentric "Runner." 57 



hanging close to the head, with coats, though close and 

 thick, as bright and smooth as satin. It was wonderful 

 with what pluck and endurance they would make their way 

 to the end of the longest run. . . . Now in these fast 

 days," continued the gallant Captain, " sportsmen cannot 

 wait for a fox to be got out, and the order is ( find another 

 one ' ; hence the use of fox terriers to run with hounds has 

 been discontinued, and the breed has not been kept up at 

 Badminton. 



And there is no doubt that the fox terrier is less used as 

 an adjunct to the foxhounds now, in IQ02, than even was 

 the case when "J. A. H." poured forth his lamentations on 

 the subject. At times one may see a " runner" — that is, a 

 man who follows the hounds on foot — with a little dog 

 under his arm or at his heels in a leash, which he tells you 

 is " the best in the world," and will drive any fox from any 

 earth or drain, be it ever so long and sinuous. For obvious 

 reasons the poor fellow's terrier is seldom tried, and when 

 the fox is run to ground, the cry, oftener than not, is 

 " Forrard ! to Blankton Gorse," or to some other untried 

 ■covert, and the fox that has gone to ground has saved his 

 brush at any rate for a time. Some hunting men will, no 

 doubt, have heard of that eccentric " runner," once a dis- 

 tinguished character with one of our foremost packs 

 of hounds, who bred and kept an excellent strain of 

 working terriers His eccentricity did not, however, 

 lie in this fancy for little dogs, but in the habit he 

 had of carrying a home-made spur, which he used on 

 his own thighs when tired and inclined to drop into a 

 walk. To such an extent did he thus punish himself that 

 he had to undergo surgical treatment on more than one 

 occasion. 



