EARLY HUNTING EXPERIENCES. 3 



the field. He was riding a pulling pony, and in 

 the course of a run he came full tilt against a local 

 magistrate, whom he ignominiously capsized. The 

 sufferer was very indignant, and appealed to the 

 Master to have the boy flogged. The Master, 

 however, took a different view of the matter, and 

 said slyly he thought he saw some good in the 

 boy, as he had come off number one in his first 

 brush against a justice of the peace. This in- 

 cident, and the fact that on the same day young 

 Harris dislodged a marten cat which the hounds 

 had tree'd, made him from that time a favourite 

 with Mr Yeatman. Harris became one of the 

 hardest riding men in the Vale, and his sons after 

 him were very keen men with hounds. When 

 Harris was once asked who was the best sportsman 

 he had ever known, he replied, " There have been 

 so many of the right sort hereabouts, that I'm 

 blest if I know. But one day I was sitting be- 

 tween the two divines, Mr Yeatman and the Rev. 

 Jack Kussell, and I says, ' Gentlemen, I feels 

 mortal proud to find myself between the two best 

 sportsmen in England.' " 



It was through his friend Mr Yeatman that 

 my father made the acquaintance of the Rev. 

 John Russell, of Devonshire fame, another choice 

 spirit of the clerical circle whose interests were 

 not bounded by their parochial duties. My father 

 was staying at Stock House when he heard his 

 host lamenting that, owing to his hunting estab- 

 lishment being very short of hands, he did not 



