A CHARACTER. 175 



are often nearly on their nose^ and at down jumps 

 very often slide quite on their rumps ; but, some- 

 how, he never gets a regular purl. I once got 

 him to take a very wild and uncertain leaper I 

 had : he, in his quiet way, shoved him into all 

 sorts of places ; he never rides fast at a fence, 

 does most of them as standing jumps ; still, go 

 over or through, they must. I gave him a five 

 pound note, and he returned me certainly a hunter. 

 There is nothing ' Quornite ^ in this, I allow ; but 

 all countries are not Leicestershire ; he is a harrier 

 huntsman, but send him to !Melton, give him a 

 Melton hunter, and I will answer for him he 

 would turn at nothing, or let his horse do so 

 either : his whip rides bold in another way ; his 

 horses are flying leapers.''^ 



On arriving next morning near where I knesv 

 ]\IuUins and his harriers would be, we were rather 

 late : but after riding about a little, I heard 

 '^Loak, loak, loak ! yoi, loak!'' "There's old 

 Mullins's ^loak, loak,''' said I. 



" Vv^hat on earth does he mean by that 'loak,' 

 or rather croak, of his? " said my friend. 



"Why," replied I, "it matters little as to effect 

 what sound you make to a horse or hound, pro- 

 vided they understand what you mean. By that 

 monotonous sound he has from habit got into, his 

 hounds know he means to encourage them to try, 

 and as another bit of dog language of his own 



