CHArTEII VI 



" BUB " 



"Am I not Cliristo])lier Sly, Old Sly's son of Burton Hcatli ; Ijy birtli a pedlar, by 

 education a card-maker, by transmutation a bear-liurd, and by prusent profession a 

 tinker?" — The Taming of the Shreiv. 



HAVE tried to find a poetic (quotation 

 for tlie head of each chapter in our 

 liistory, but for " Bob," our Kennel- 

 man, I am fain to fall back on Shake- 

 spearian prose, for : Is he not Bob 

 Floate, old Floate the keeper's son of 

 Storrington ? By birth a " charac- 

 ter," by trade a butcher, in default 

 a bird-scarer, by transmutation a 

 plumber, and thence by desertion 

 Kennelman to the T.F.B. ? Where, 

 by the way, he has lived happily ever 

 after, though it is only in the last few 

 years that he has Ijecome the father of a family and is married. 



More than one old beagler who has written to me with words 

 of encouragement, and what is better, deeds, in the form of valuable 

 information, has suggested what I had also myself thought of, viz. 

 that Bob could spin some yarns. But he could not be expected to 

 write them ; they must be obtained viva voce, and shaped as best 

 I can manage. So one day I went up to the Kennels to interview 

 Bob, and found him, as a wind-up to the hunting season, dosing the 

 entire pack with worm-pills, and, though desperate busy, he l)egan 

 spinning yarns forthwith. I started him off' by talking of mange, 



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