HARE-HUNTERS OF THE PAST 31 



indispensable, of which there was a plentiful supply, per- 

 sonated, I may say, by all the attendants, with immense 

 long whips, and deep-sounding lungs not sparingly used. 



" The huntsman was the owner, riding an old grizzled 

 horse, rather lengthy both above and below the saddle, 

 in a green coat, with flaps covering the boot-tops, and 

 large yellow buttons, a scarlet waistcoat high in the 

 throat and long in the waist, with a pair of pockets 

 deep enough for a large tobacco box, or even for a 

 leveret in a strait — his breeches ribbed corduroys, 

 short at the knee, and secured from rubbing over by 

 a large pair of silver knee-buckles ; boots allied to the 

 Jack order, with tops somewhat short, and certainly 

 not white, leaving a respectable space to shew the blue 

 woollen stocking, and kept just over the calf by a pair 

 of broad tanned straps across the knee. The spurs 

 I forget, so they must be left. A bushy black wig, 

 covered by a low crowned castor, with brims a la 

 Joli-ffe, serving by their turn-up as gutters for rain, 

 embraced a face oval and long, rouged in the nasal, 

 and wide in the mouth, various in colour, having shades 

 of red, blue and yellow ; hands of Cyclops breed, too 

 large for any Woodstock manufacturer, and never in 

 genial warmth from the cuff of the coat ; the whip long 

 and heavy, always dangling by the side of the leg ready 

 for action. The finishing embellishment must not be 

 omitted, though not in place — the whole person being 

 kept in due order by a belt round the body, rather 

 protuberant. 



" He was a capital sportsman, and could almost hunt 

 a hare himself ; though old, his quick eye could discern 

 the sitting victim through ' matted blade ' ; and though 

 his helpmates were anything but as they should be, yet 

 who-hoop generally closed the scene. He was early 

 and late in the field, facing all weathers but frost, and 



