A Narrow Escape. 127 



amid loud tally-ho's, following their game into the pool, 

 where, after a fine swim and hunt, he was in due course 

 killed. I have seen fox terriers bark rats out of a tree root, 

 and even out of a hole, and my old bitch Riot was a 

 curiosity in this way, for she would stuff her nose into a 

 hole or opening of any kind, and there give tongue loudly 

 enough almost to rouse the Seven Sleepers. Anyhow she 

 usually alarmed the rats, which plumped into the water and 

 w r ere then soon killed. She was as quick as lightning at this 

 game, and in the sport of boyhood's days she quite broke 

 the heart of a favourite bull terrier of mine, also a keen rat 

 hunter, by killing every one before he could get near them. 

 This went on so long and to such an extent that the bull 

 terrier ultimately refused to hunt at all when Riot was 

 present, and so he was sent away. As a watch dog in 

 a Lancashire warehouse I am told he did not prove a 

 success. 



Riot I had well-nigh lost, and when she was heavy in 

 pup too. We had a few rats in the cellar at home, and 

 the old bitch was fond of watching for them as they came 

 out of a small hole in the wall. She had been missed for 

 an hour or so, and going down into the aforesaid cellar 

 there was the terrier with her head tightly jammed in a hole 

 so small that one would wonder how even a rat could get 

 through. There the poor thing was as fast as possible, and 

 I had sent one of the servants for a neighbouring mason to 

 bring his hammer and tools to free her, when just before 

 his arrival I managed to get her released. She had, no 

 doubt, rushed with such force and at so great a pace 

 towards a rat disappearing in the hole that her head 

 became jammed as we found it. Luckily Riot, excepting 

 for some slight abrasions, was little the worse for her 



