THE HOLDERNESS. 153 



the wall all at once.** Afterwards his kennels were at Bishop's 

 Burton. He had quite a scratch pack, and was, as a rule, short 

 of hounds as well as horses, and at one time fed according to 

 the weather, but soon gave that up. Let old Will Danby, how- 

 ever, tell the story as he told it to me one hot August afternoon, 

 when sitting in his snug little parlour hard by the kennels at 

 Acomb : — 



" With Mr. Hodgson they used to go immense distances to 

 meet, and frequently came home thirty-five miles. The master 

 used to say that ' his men were made of cast-iron, his horses of 

 steel, and his hounds of india-rubber.' Neither master nor man 

 went to covert in a brougham, as do some of the swells of the 

 period. They were often short of horses, and never had more 

 than thirty-six couple of hounds. Once they were advertised to 

 hunt two days running. They took sixteen couple of hounds 

 the first day, and killed their fox. The next day, with the scmie 

 hounds and the same horses, they rattled and killed another 

 brace, and had eighteen miles to go home afterwards. But," 

 added Will, " if I told the modern huntsmen this, they would 

 call me a d — d old liar; but we used to go out to hunt 

 in those days, and often came home at twelve o'clock at 

 night." 



Will rode one famous white-faced chestnut called Murphy, 

 given to Mr. Hodgson by Lord Mountsandford, and this horse 

 once carried him eighteen miles from point to point in an hour 

 and twenty minutes. He was very bold, and, when hounds ran 

 fast, would jump a gate rather tlian stop to open it, and on 

 another occasion went through a run by himself. Another 

 chestnut was the winner of 700 in stakes, and in one of his 

 races his then owner rode him with a pipe in his mouth. Will's 

 opinion was that Holderness was not nearly so good since it 

 had been drained, and he said, " The wetter the better for that 

 country ; still, I have known them run on the wolds when you 

 could not see them for clouds of dust." They were fenced with 

 double posts and rails in those days, to protect the young quick 



