132 HORSES Am) HOUNDS. 



growling and noise among the hounds, I stepped in, and there 

 was Mr. Tom in the midst, surveying them witli much apparent 

 satisfaction. " Wliat the deuce are you about with tlie hounds, 

 Tom ?" I said ; " and how dare you set them all by the ears in 

 this manner 1 you are drunk !" " No, sir, I'm not ;" said Tom; 

 " I only wanted to see how they would look together ;" and he 

 began to grin idiotically. " Now, Tom," I said, " drunk you 

 are ; tell me where you have been, and go home, for here you 

 shall not stay another moment." " I aint drunk," repeated Tom, 

 " and know what I am about very well." " Then," I said, 

 "we'll soon prove that beyond dispute;" so I gave him a gentle 

 push, and down Tom went to grass without delay. " Come, sir," 

 said Tom, "I wont stand that." "No," I said, "that's clear 

 enough, you can't stand it, and that was only a push that a boy 

 of ten years old would have stood ; but," I said, " look out now 

 for squalls, for I'll repeat the dose if you don't tell me at once 

 where you have been making yourself drunk in this shameful 

 manner in the middle of the day." Putting my fists up, Tom 

 did not require any more forcible arguments of this sort, but 

 said at once, "Well, sir, I wont deny it any longer, I am 

 drunk ;" and he then told me the story about the gentlemen 

 taking him to the inn, and plying him with brandy and water. 

 "Well, Tom," I said, "there is some excuse for you, and I 

 think the gentlemen, as you call them, much more culpable. Go 

 home, and go to bed, and if you take a cooling draught which I 

 will send you, nothing more shall be said this time at least." 



Tom, although only under-whip, was quite as old and big a 

 man as myself; but I do not wish to justify my conduct in 

 striking a servant at aU. I was out of order as well as Tom, and 

 so I felt afterwards. Boys, however, must have a practical 

 lesson or two to break them in, and some will not do without 

 many such. A wiser head than mine has laid this down as a 

 rule, and there are few who will not sometimes require it. 



Masters of hounds are often abused for their quickness and 

 impatience in the field. Having been one myself, I may, from 

 experience, say that they are often placed in situations which 

 require almost the patience of Job. I allude to those particu- 

 larly who hunt their own hounds. Those who look on at the 

 game cannot feel as those do who are eagerly engaged in it. 

 See a man on a good scenting day with a good fox before the 

 hounds trying to break away, but headed in every direction by 

 some coffee-housing fellows, smoking their cigars or talking 

 politics, while he is working like a slave to show them the sport 

 they do not deserve. The fox breaks, perhaps, for half a field ; 

 some outrigger heads him back again, and very often a good fox. 



