HUNTING 229 



master for ever so many years of the Culmstock 

 Otter-hounds, in the county of Devon, to bring 

 his hounds and his men, and above all himself, to 

 hunt our country for the fortnight or so that it 

 can well provide sport annually. 



Perhaps no better piece of advice was ever 

 given, and I was very pleased when I got into 

 communication with Mr. Collier, and found that 

 if the way was smoothed for him as to the con* 

 sent of riparian proprietors, accommodation, finance, 

 and the like, he would be very pleased to come. 



These little matters I was in a good position 

 to arrange, and I took care that whatever troubles 

 arose, they should fall on to my shoulders and 

 not on those of Mr. Collier. 



His first season with us was in 1884, and he 

 soon won all hearts by his kindly courteous 

 bearing, typical of the old West County yeoman 

 landowner, who had lived in his own house, 

 cultivated his own estate, hunted his own hounds 

 over his own lands and those of his neighbours, 

 and dating back at least three or four generations 

 of his forebears. Dear old William Collier might 

 well have stepped from a picture of two hundred 

 years ago, and, except in the Dales of Yorkshire 

 and in his own county, it would be very hard 

 to find a " marrow " to him in these days. He 

 was, moreover, the most accomplished artist on 



