. THE 



Haughtyshire Hunt. 



CHAPTER I. 



HOW THE BINKIES TOOK ' THE CHASE.' 



Eight in the heart of the lovely vale of Lambdown, a 

 hard-bitten old fox-hunting Squire, Ealph Benwell, erected 

 for himself, some two centuries since, a fine square house 

 of grey stone, surrounded by a moat, with a huge range 

 of stabling, and here, together with his six boys and girls, 

 he devoted himself almost entirely to the pleasures of the 

 chase ; and, when in due, or, perhaps, undue course — for the 

 hard Squire lacked but a few weeks of his ninetieth year 

 at the time he was gathered to his fathers, ' full of years 

 and honour ' — his eldest son reigned in his stead, he 

 w^orthily carried on the same pack of fox-hounds, the same 

 sized stud of hunters, and the same existence generally, 

 as his sire had done before him. He married a fruitful 

 wife, lived long and happily, and was, in his turn, suc- 

 ceeded by his firstborn boy. But at the conclusion of this 

 IDarticular Benwell's reign, things began to go awry at The 

 Chase, as the old grey stone mansion was called. A spend- ' 

 thrift son in a crack cavalry regiment, a rascally lawyer, 

 and a temporary depression in things agricultural, forced 



H.H. B 



