FIRST DAYS IN HANTS AND BERKS. 33 



open gateway where the ground was covered with 

 ice, Tom lost his footing, and coming down, he 

 rolled completely over me, and cut his side rather 

 badly as he did so. Hounds checking soon after 

 this, Mr Garth ordered them home, for, as he 

 said, his huntsman's horse had been skating all 

 the way. 



It was in one of my very early appearances 

 with Mr Garth's hounds that I disgraced myself, 

 and drew from my father a threat to leave me at 

 home until I knew better than to correct a Master of 

 Hounds in the field. In Mr Garth's pack were two 

 light - coloured hounds, sisters, by name Captious 

 and Captive. These hounds I knew well, as indeed 

 I did the others, for when they were in our part 

 of the country, the huntsman and whipper-in used 

 to come into our yard for refreshment on their 

 way home to the kennels at Haines Hill, some 

 sixteen miles away. While Sweetman was sitting 

 in the yard he would tell me the names of the 

 hounds, and delighted in recounting anecdotes of 

 his favourites, which helped me to fix the different 

 hounds in my mind. Thus the peculiarities of 

 Captious and Captive were familiar to me, though 

 they resembled one another so closely that even 

 those who knew them well not infrequently mis- 

 took one for the other. 



One day at the covert-side Mr Garth was point- 

 ing out some of his hounds to a stranger in the 

 field, when, just as he was on the point of moving 

 off", one of the light-coloured sisters trotted up. 



c 



