6 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



of these animals, in fact, is now in the mouths of some old 

 men in the parish, when speaking of Dick, the Squire's 

 huntsman, and his lop-eared horse, which he purchased 

 out of a neighbouring gentleman's coach-stable. Mounted 

 on this horse, however, Dick was in his element ; beauti- 

 fully did he ride him to the music of his crack pack, and, 

 did he espy among his field any gentlemen whom he knew 

 to have hunted in Leicestershire (he designated all such 

 " your silver-handled sportsmen "), awful must have been 

 the fence that turned him ten yards from his line, when 

 his hounds were on a good scent. 



Nor was Dick less notable in the field. He "did the 

 trick " in a style differing from his brother huntsmen of 

 the scut, and, to manifest his superiority by quitting the 

 beaten track, hunted his pack as if they had been fox- 

 hounds. He tallyhoed his hares when they were in view ; 

 hallooed his hounds forward, cap in hand, to a point ; and, 

 by forcing his game to fly beyond their knowledge of the 

 country in which they were bred, had runs of extra- 

 ordinary duration. In fact, such was the speed of these 

 harriers, from the head they carried in chase, the result of 

 the care taken in the breeding of them, that many first- 

 rate hunters ay, and hunters of fame too have been 

 blown to a dead stand-still, in the attempt to lie by the 

 side of them in a burst, when the ground has been tender 

 under their feet, and the scent good ; and yet no man had 

 more patience than Dick, when his hounds were brought 

 down to their noses by the stain from cattle or sheep, or 

 by a passing cloud or storm. Here he was the hare- 

 hunter ; and often has been the time when success has 

 rewarded his patience, after that of his field had been 

 exhausted. What did you do with your last hare ? would 

 be the question put to him many times during the season, 

 by Mr. Eaby, on his return home, he himself having left 

 in a moment of despair. " I persevered, sir, and killed 

 her," was the general reply. 



Mr. Raby pursued one practice connected with his hunt- 

 ing, which might, with advantage, be more generally 

 observed. He provided his huntsman with a book, in 

 which were inserted the names of all the occupiers of 

 land over which he sported, and he ordered that a hare 

 should be given to each in his turn, and oftentimes twice, 

 during the season. 



But Mr. Eaby was not a fox-hunter ; for, in the first 



