FIRST DAYS IN HANTS AND BERKS. 35 



open moorland, of which there was a great deal in 

 his country. This pack had that family likeness 

 and distinctive character which so often mark 

 private packs, the individual hounds having plenty 

 of bone and an unmistakable look of stamina and 

 resolution. Though Mr Garth bred many good 

 hounds himself, he had a great many first-class 

 ones that came to him in drafts as being oversize 

 for their home pack. An unentered hound named 

 Bluster, that came to Mr Garth from the Ted- 

 worth in the early days of his mastership, was one 

 of the foundations on which he built up his pack. 

 Bluster was by Mr Assheton Smith's Bertram ex 

 Mr Garth's Birdlime, and among his numerous 

 descendants Bingwood was so good that he was 

 begged as a loan by the Marquis of Worcester for 

 use in the Badminton kennels. Bingwood was 

 said by Charles Brackley, who at a later period 

 carried the horn for so many years with Mr Garth, 

 to be the best hound he had ever hunted. 



Tom Sweetman, who was Mr Garth's huntsman 

 in my early days, was well known in the country 

 before he held the post. He was a wonderful 

 horseman, and was always with his hounds, and on 

 a flying fox he was one of the best huntsmen I 

 have ever seen. He also had a wonderful ear, and 

 could always tell which of his hounds spoke in 

 covert. Poor Sweetman dropped out of his saddle 

 at the meet at Grey well on Friday, the 12 th of 

 November 1869, and died the same day of apoplexy. 

 The last time he hunted hounds was on the pre- 



