The Sport of Our (^Ancestors 



walk. But in spite of the fact that he would not win at 

 Peterborough if he were alive now, Furrier was an un- 

 deniable Foxhound, and his name appears in all the best 

 modern pedigrees. 



Mr. Osbaldeston was delighted with Furrier. Like 

 master like Hound. There was nothing of the line-hunter 

 about either of them : if * Nimrod ' correctly describes Mr. 

 Osbaldeston, he was a bit wild, and certainly premature 

 in speaking to the Hounds. On the approach to the covert, 

 * Nimrod ' tells us that he cheered them in cap in hand, saying, 

 ' Hark in. Hark ! ' and later on he is made to scream with 

 his finger to his ear before a single Hound has said a word. 

 Now of three things, one : either the method here adopted 

 of cheering Hounds before they open v^as the fashion in 

 those days ; or Mr. Osbaldeston was an impostor ; or 

 ' Nimrod ' was an ignoramus. It is impossible to believe that 

 to cheer Hounds before they found was ever the fashion 

 at any period in the whole history of the Chase. We would 

 wager a very large stake that neither Will Barrow nor Philip 

 Payne nor any of the great contemporary huntsmen ever 

 did anything of the kind. Did Mr. Osbaldeston do it ? 

 Almost certainly not. ' Nimrod ' then is the culprit. Here 

 is another solecism. While the Hounds were drawing, 

 Rasselas showed himself and took a short turn in the 

 open. Now by all the rules of Fox-hunting, the whipper-in 

 should have kept his mouth shut ; any noise outside pre- 

 vents the Fox breaking covert and distracts the attention 

 of the Hounds inside. It is true that whippers-in con- 



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