THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 25 



from t'other myself. That is not a bad hit of yours, 

 however, sir. You'll do in time." 



Frank. "But, Dick, what a head they carried over 

 Groseby field. As the leaps were not too much for 

 Rodney, I was pretty near you was I not, Will ? (ad- 

 dressing himself to the whipper-in). And I saw that 

 young bitch, Melody, that papa is so fond of, guiding 

 the scent for at least half a mile. He declares he would 

 not take ten pounds for her." 



Dick. " I would not take half that sum for her myself, 

 sir. She is by the old Duke of Grafton's Tyrant, out of 

 our old Melody, and has all the good qualities of a fox- 

 hound with those of the harrier. But, Master Francis, 

 who told you about a hound ' guiding the scent 1 ' It's a 

 monstrous good notion, but we always say 'guiding the 

 pack.' " 



Frank. "It is what Mr. Egerton calls 'a figure of 

 speech,' Dick." 



Dick. " Ah ! sir, see what it is not to have had a 

 laming ! I shall never talk again about a hound guiding 

 the pack, as I am all for a bit of novelty in my trade 

 when I can get it. And I see no reason why hare-hunting 

 should remain where my grandfather left it, when, as 

 Squire Talbot says, the hares never went out of their own 

 parishes." 



Frank." Mr. Egerton says there has been a great deal 

 written about hunting hares, which I shall know when 

 I come to read Greek. One Xenophon, he says, wrote 

 about it more than 2000 years ago ; and another Greek 

 writer, called Homer, compared hounds running a hare 

 through thick woods, to two great warriors pursuing an 

 enemy by night." 



Dick. " I don't doubt it, sir. That Mr. Egerton is a 

 clever gentleman ; I wish he would come a-hunting, as, 

 perhaps, he might write something about it, for I don't 

 know of anyone having done so since the two gentlemen 

 you have just mentioned, and it is but few that could read 

 what they have said." 



Our hero was on the point of joining with the huntsman 

 in the wish that his tutor would take the field, when Mr. 

 Raby and the rest of the party came up, and orders were 

 given to draw for a hare, in a fallow adjoining the road, 

 which having been long ploughed, was considered likely 

 to produce one. It did so; a brilliant burst was the 



