122 THE TKINITY FOOT BEAGLES 



of beans and benevolence, and on the hounds finding he went exactly 

 where he liked, his rider, in a long yellow ulster and trousers, having 

 no more control than a tom-tit over a steam roller, and away he 

 went, fortunately not through the pack, and by dint of laying on to 

 one rein he was got round in a curve which, to the rider's horror, 

 looked as though it would bring him in front of the targets on the 

 range at which firing was in progress. By dint of further efforts the 

 curve was brought behind the Butts. His rider thought he heard 

 bullets whistling over him, but it was probably only the wind 

 whistling in his ears. Having at length got him on the road he 

 consented to pull up to a strong trot, and took his saddened and 

 beaten rider back to his stables in the lane. 



To these reminiscences Mr. Hunt appends the following note : — 

 " I remember the Butts day well, and the bullets whistling. I 

 think on the whole, during my two years, we had very good sport. 

 As we met at 1 or 1.30 p.m. the time was rather short, and therefore 

 the Beagles were held on and lifted, more than would be perhaps 

 justifiable under ordinary circumstances ; but, as Mr. Jorrocks says, 

 'Hounds that don't stand lifting are not worth having.' I found 

 that it was quite easy to lift hounds for half a mile and put their 

 noses down at any given point, but I have never been able to explain 

 to any one else how it was done." 



I have also picked up the following scrap of information from an 

 old Magdalene man who was not a beagler. Mr. Gunton, a beagling 

 Don, was Dean at Magdalene, and just as in ancient China ^ there 

 was a Confucian who was called the philosopher of the four stops, 

 so Mr. Gunton might be dubbed the don of the four " veries." He 

 was, my informant tells me: — 



1. Very good company. 



2. Very clever at writing elegiacs. 



3. Very fond of Newmarket. 



4. Very cpiick with the Chapel services. 



Does not that read like a survival of eighteenth - century 

 dondom ? 



^ Unearthed by Mr. E. ^'. Lucas. 



