88 COVERT -SIDB SKETCHES. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE BROCKLESBY. 



Hark to the cheering note ! They've found him, see ! 

 The gorse is waving like a troubled sea ; 

 He's gone away ; hark, halloo ! to the cry ! 

 Like swallows skimming o'er the fields they fly. 

 " Give them a moment " — " Hold hard, sir, pray ; 

 You'll stop his pulling ere we've done to-day." 

 Look at the gallant pack ! away they sweep ! 

 The pace is killing, and the country deep. 



Op the packs of England, as far as I have been able to ascer- 

 tain, there are none to be found of more ancient date than 

 the Brocklesby; hence I will give them precedence amongst 

 those of which I propose to lay a short liistory before my 

 readers. Other considerations also induce me to give tliem the 

 preference, for no pack has done more in sustaining the excel- 

 lence of our fox-hound blood, or attained greater celebrity, than 

 the hounds of the Earl of Yarborough — established as long ago 

 as 1713, when Mr. Pelham, Sir John Tyrwhitt of Stanfield, and 

 Mr. Vyner, on the 20th of April, entered into the following 

 agreement : — 



"It is agreed that the fox-hounds now kept by Sir John 

 Tyrwhitt, and the hounds now kept by the said Mr. Pelham, 

 shall be joined in one pack, and each of them — the said Sir 

 John Tyrwhitt, Eobert Vyner, and Charles Pelham — to have 

 an equal share and interest in the said pack." 



This arrangement lasted for five years, and a fine wild country 



