152 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



Avhose hounds the present Duke of Grafton's are, I helieve, 

 descended, twice during the season brought his pack into the 

 country, in order that the Holderness men might not be without 

 a bit of hunting, and very capital sport he showed them, in 

 spite of his men curring it, and being totally unable to get to 

 their hounds. He also came a month at a time the next season, 

 and had a clipper on the 2nd of December from Was^nd Wood, 

 killing at Eabbit Hills, when he declared it was the proudest 

 day of his life. 



In 1824 the palmy days of the Holderness began, for then 

 came to the front that thorough houndsman, Mr. Thomas 

 Hodgson, who Sir Bellingham Graham said only lived for 

 hunting, and he was a good example of what can be done with 

 small means when the heart is in the right place, as he hunted 

 the Holderness country four days a week for fifteen years with a 

 subscription of 800Z. to a 1000/. a year, and could not afford to 

 dip into his own resources to augment it. But then he knew 

 all about hounds and hunting, and although not an elegant 

 horseman, as any one will allow who has ever seen the sketch 

 of " Old Days in Holderness " in Scott and Sebright, he was a 

 good rider, nevertheless, or he never could have accomplished 

 what he did with his short stud. Like " the other Tom Smith," 

 Col. Anstruther Thomson, old Jem Hills of the Heythorp, and 

 a few others, he had a wonderful knowledge of the run of his 

 fox, and in one season killed no less than thirty-seven brace in 

 the Holderness country. Here he remained and handled the 

 horn for fifteen seasons. A Holderness Club was established, 

 I>eople came from a distance to hunt with him, and Beverley 

 has never known such a time before or since, for strangers came 

 to winter there as well as gentlemen of the country. His 

 manner was so kind, and his sport so good, that .he was 

 immensely popular. His kennels were in the town, and he lived 

 himself at the Rose and Crown, in very humble apartments, 

 from all that is recorded of him, for we read that "he could sit 

 on his bed, stir the fire and see his hounds through a hole in 



