140 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



Pack-horse in Micklegate were bad to beat, though I must 

 admit that I have ridden better hacks than many of them were. 

 There is always plenty of hunting to be got from York, and, 

 on the whole, the old city is about as enjoyable a place for 

 a man to winter in, provided he can put up with plough, 

 as any one need desire. At least it proved so to me when I 

 made it my head-quarters for a month or two's hunting, and 

 I suspect it has not very much altered its character. There is a 

 genuineness about Yorkshire hunting which is sadly lacking 

 in some countries I have visited. The farmers are heart and 

 soul in the sport— as are all classes, for that matter — and the 

 patent leather boot and nosegay element is happily con- 

 spicuous by its absence. 



[N'ow, to return to the York and Ainsty, the pack was, first of 

 all, in the hands of a committee, the Hon. Mr. Butler, Mr. Robert 

 Chaloner, and Mr. Clough, being the members of it. There 

 was also a divided command in the field, as Messrs. Earker 

 and "Waring hunted them, which is not so much to be wondered 

 at, as they divided their attention between fox and hare ; and 

 as each requires such a different style of hunting, there may, 

 after all, have been wisdom in this dual arrangement, though 

 what sort of a pack they had, under these circumstances, it is 

 not very hard to imagine. Neither is it to be wondered at that 

 they changed about a bit as regards masters, but it is strange 

 that, under the circumstances, they had the support of such a 

 man as Sir Bellingham Graham, which I believe was the case. 

 Perhaps he looked forward with a prophetic eye, and saw of what 

 great things the country was capable. When Wilson, who was 

 their first regular huntsman, retired, and old Will Danby came 

 from Mr. Hodgson to take the horn, we begin to see daylight, 

 and imagine they stuck to legitimate business, for many a talk 

 have I had with the old man in his house at Acomb, which, with 

 an annuity, was given him by the York and Ainsty Hunt, 

 but never a word of currant jelly crossed his lips. JS"© man 



