86 HOUND AND HOEN ; 



drawing near; but he never repined, though he had 

 sleepless nights and weary days, as the being confined 

 to his bedroom was not what he had been accustomed 

 to. Still he looked to the bright side of things, and 

 constantly expressed his thankfulness for all the 

 comforts he had enjoyed through life, and even then 

 in his decline. His mental faculties were all perfect, 

 and his memory wonderful as ever. He was still 

 anxious to know of the doings of the Tedworth, at that 

 time kennelled in Marlborough Forest for cub-hunting ; 

 and on my speaking one evening about Jack Fricker, 

 and his having got his hounds together on the line of 

 a fox he had been hunting, where there were two or 

 three fresh foxes afoot, and the pack divided, the old 

 man looked up : " Well, sir, there's nothing like 

 knowing the note, and what hounds you can trust. 

 Why, I think I've told you, there were a bitch I had 

 once called ' Salvage,' and we were in Doles Wood, and 

 plenty of foxes there ; 'twere early in the season, and 

 the hounds got arter one and another all over the place. 

 Well, I stood still and listened till I heard Salvage, and 

 I know'd her tongue, and she were always right, and 

 she were hunting round towards me, and all of a sudden 

 she stopped. I galloped up to near where I heard that 

 bitch last, and I jumped off my horse, and just hitched 

 him up, when up comes Colonel Lascelles. ' Hullo I ' 



