132 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



" Not for five sovereigns, Squire Harkaway, 

 would I have another run like this." 



" Come, come, Jack, no nonsense ; you ain't in a 

 position to make terms, but to take those that are 

 offered, being a prisoner of war, surrounded by 

 your enemies. So now listen to my terms : The 

 master shall take the hounds away, and I'll give 

 you twenty minutes' law, by which time you can 

 reach home, without being tree'd again/' 



" It can't be done in the time, Squire/' 



" Yes it can, Jack ; you can do two miles and a 

 half within the twenty minutes, easily, so come 

 down from the tree and be off, and I'll keep time 

 for you honestly, or here you shall stay till mid- 

 night/' 



Jack, knowing the character of his customer, 

 descended to terra firma, pocketed the five shil- 

 lings tendered by Harkaway, and set off at full 

 speed, reaching home about five minutes before the 

 clamorous pack were yelling at his cottage door. 



This may appear a funny method of entering 

 hounds to a fox-scent, yet it is not altogether a 

 novelty, since Beckford relates an anecdote of an 

 old sportsman, a clergyman, also, who entered his 

 young hounds first at a cat, " which he dragged 

 along the ground for a mile or two/' and it is but 

 reasonable to suppose that the cat was first killed, 

 and not dragged to death over the country ; although 

 probably not skinned. This is a novelty, and we 

 do not imagine these harriers would have touched 

 the dead carcase of this fox, much less have eaten it, 



