NOTITIA VBNATICA. 41 



creditably a family of cloven sons and daughters, kept a stable of right 

 good English hunters, a kennel of true bred foxhounds, besides a carriage 

 with horses suitable to carry out my lady and her daughters to church 

 and other places of goodly resort. He lived in the old, honest style of 

 his country, killing every month a good ox of his own feeding, and 

 priding himself on maintaining a goodly, substantial table, but with no 

 foreign kickshaws. His general apparel was a long, dark-brown hunt- 

 ing coat, a belt round his waist, and a strong velvet cap on his head. 

 In his humour he was very joking and facetious, having always some 

 pleasant story, both in the field and at the hall, so that his company 

 was much sought after by persons of good condition, which was of great 

 use to him in after life in advancing his own children. His stables and 

 kennels were kept in such excellent order that sportsmen observed them 

 as schools for huntsmen and grooms, who were glad to live there with- 

 out Avages, merely to learn their business ; when they had got good in- 

 struction, he then recommended them to other gentlemen, who wished 

 no better character than that they were recommended by Squire Draper. 

 He was always out of bed, during the hunting season, at four o'clock in 

 the morning, and mounted on one of his goodly nags at five o'clock, 

 himself bringing forth his hounds, who knew every note of their master's 

 voice. In the field he rode with good judgment, avoiding what was un- 

 necessary, and helping his hounds when at fault. His daughter, Di, 

 who was equally famous at riding, was wont to assist him, cheering the 

 hounds with her voice. She died in York at a good old age, and what 

 was wonderful to many sportsmen, who dared not follow her, she died 

 with whole bones in her bed. After the fatigues of the day, when he 

 generally brought home a couple of brushes, he entertained those who 

 would return with him, which was sometimes a. distance of thirty miles, 

 with good old English hospitality ; prime old October home-brewed was 

 the liquor drunk, and his first fox-hunting toast, after dinner, was, ' All 

 the brushes in Christendom.' At the age of eighty years this famous 

 squire died as he lived, for he died on horseback ; as he was returning 

 from a visit to a neighbouring sportsman, where he had been to give him 

 some instruction about establishing a pack of hounds, he was seized 

 with a fit, and, dropping from his favourite pony, expired. There Avas 

 no man, rich or poor, in the neighbourhood, but who lamented his death, 

 and the foxes Avere the only living things that had cause to be glad that 

 Squire Draper was no more." 



A Yorkshireman and a sportsman have, from time immemorial, been 

 almost synonymous terms; and I have always fancied that there is in- 

 variably a certain degree of character stamped upon the inhabitants of 

 this, my favourite county, which in no degree loses its interest even in 

 the more humble of its examples. Amongst the numerous latter class 

 whom circumstances have placed in my way, not one is more deserving 

 of notice than that extraordinary character who is the subject of the fol- 

 loAving short memoir. 



Robert Darling, who was so well known for a great number of years 

 as earth stopper to the Holderness hounds by the appropriate soubriquet 

 of " Dog Bob," was a native of that soiithern part of Durham bordering 



