THE HOLDERNESS. 155 



only one whole strand in the rope ; but as to the danger, to 

 use the brave fellow's own words, " he was so anxious about 

 the hounds, that he never thought about it." Save and except 

 Billy Bean, I suppose no man ever had more knocking about 

 than Will Danby, who has had a yard of sticking-plaister on his 

 thigh, all his ribs knocked off his breast-bone, his head frac- 

 tured, &c., &c., and yet lived to a good old age, as a specimen 

 of the healthfulness of the pursuit in which his life had been 

 passed ; and a real genial old fellow he was too, though he drew 

 no inspiration from the bowl. 



I must not pass over another great, or at least well-known, 

 character in this hunt — Bob Darling, alias Dog Bob. Bob was 

 such an ardent disciple of Diana, that he might have put even 

 the Ephesians to the blush, and when working in the capacity 

 of an East Eiding ploughman, so far forgot the responsibility 

 of his situation, on seeing the hounds in chase, that he un- 

 yoked the fore-horse, and, leaving fallows and stubbles to their 

 iate, threw in his lot with the chase. This, of course, ensured 

 his dismissal, and he commenced horse-dealer without capital, 

 in which venture the fates were far less kind to him than to 

 some other individuals I could name, who have started under 

 similar circumstances. Bob could not live by coping — per- 

 chance he was not rogue enough ; at any rate it served his turn, 

 though, for he became the earth-stopper to the hunt, and thus 

 satisfied his venatic aspirations, and honourably fulfilled the 

 office until he was past three score and ten. 



In 1839 Mr. Hodgson was induced to remove from Holder- 

 ness and take the Quorn, in what, I consider, an evil moment, 

 because, so far, nothing could have eclipsed his renown ; but 

 both he and his hounds found the difference between a crack 

 country and a provincial one, and certainly did not add to their 

 laurels on the Leicestershire pastures, most probably from no 

 fault of their own, but simply from the different circumstances 

 in which they were placed. Used to a good scenting country — 

 perhaps the best in England — plough as it was, even the 



