4() THE HUNTING FIELD 



rarely meets with, at least not in a civilized country. We once 

 saw a fellow arrive in a greasy hat, and an old drab great coat 

 over an older red one, on a visit of inspection to another pack, 

 who was pointed out as Huntsman to the Scampington hounds, 

 and very like the thing he looked. They said he was the 

 cleverest hand at drawing on a public house that ever was seen ; 

 no matter whether he had ever been in the country before or 

 not, he could always find them, and his nose did credit to the 

 liquor. As to hunting a pack of hounds he had not the slightest 

 idea. When at length he got straggled up at a check, instead of 

 making a cast at once with promptitude and decision he would 

 sit on his horse exclaiming, "Ah, dear! whichiver way can he 

 have gone? Which way ^o yoti think he's gone, Mr. Brown ? 

 Which way Ao yon, Mr. Green ? " 



Huntsmen — hounds, servants in general — have one charming 

 quality ; they look down upon every other species of amuse- 

 ment with the most superlative contempt. We like this. It 

 shows genuine enthusiasm, without which there is little chance 

 for anything in this world. We never heard or read of but one 

 servant who followed hunting merely as a livelihood, without 

 reference to the enjoyment, and without having any natural 

 inclination that way, or indeed any pleasure in the chase, and 

 that was a man of the name of Filer, formerly Huntsman to 

 the Craven hounds, who used candidly to say, " he never liked 

 foxhunting, but having been bred up with hounds he would 

 stick to them." We have heard of men being brought up to 

 the bar, the sea, or the church, and not liking their professions, 

 but sticking to them ; but really, for a man to stick to hunting 

 merely because he had been brought up with hounds, does 

 seem a piece of pure self-devotion. He had better have turned 

 policeman. How different to some of the stories that Beckford 

 and Cook tell ! Old Luke Freeman, who hunted Lord Egre- 

 mont's hounds, used to say to his lordship's sons, when he 

 caught them reading, " Stoody, stoody, stoody ! aye studying 



