122 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



hocks or Ms wind, or perhaps it was both, went wrong, and the 

 mighty prize- taker was heard of no more. Snowstorm, who 

 could win steeplechases and get hunters, besides carrying his 

 master with hounds, has done good service in the country ; 

 and when Mr. Chaplin had him and Dalesman at Blankney, 

 no man in England could show two finer hunter sires, though 

 I believe Dalesman was tried as a hunter and found wanting. 

 His shoulders were too straight, though he could and did lead 

 gallops for young ones when at the stud. What a loss his 

 death was to the country, as well as to Mr. Chaplin, let Low- 

 lander and the good hunting-stock he left behind him prove. 

 Ivnowsley, by Stock well, was also a loss to Mr. Chaplin ; but 

 the once-despised little Hermit has made him amends, and I 

 am glad to say that he always has a good sire for the use of 

 himself and neighbours. 



In 1871 the Burton, which was an enormous country, and 

 reached from the Duke of Rutland's on one side to Lord Yar- 

 borough's on the other, with Lincoln pretty much as the central 

 point, was divided, as Mr. Chaplin found his Parliamentary 

 duties and hunting such a country combined required more time 

 than could be spared, so he retired from the mastership, and his 

 brother, Lieut.-Colonel Edward Chaplin, succeeded him, hunt- 

 ing the Elankney country, and Mr. Frank S. Eoljambe took the 

 Eurton proper or northern side. Loth packs hunt four days 

 a week, and thus a country, which in its most flourishing time 

 never afforded more than six days a week, now is hunted eight 

 — another plain proof of the popularity of hunting. Henry 

 Dawkins, who was first whip to Charley Hawtin under Mr. H. 

 Chaplin, has now succeeded to the Blankney horn, with C. 

 Boxail to turn them to him, and Will Dale, a son of John Dale, 

 who is with Lord Eadnor, hunts the Burton with Edmund 

 Burton and Edward Bartlett as whips. 



I have said the country is not so good as it was, and the 

 reason is, that since Sir Richard Sutton's time a very large 

 extent of what was grass-land has been converted into plough ; 



