216 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



them, and they were kept up until 1821 or 1822, when they 

 were suffered to drop, though a few of the hounds were given 

 to the keepers in the forest, and the last, I believe, was in the 

 hands of General Grosvenor, of Eeindeer Lodge. He was so 

 fond of him that he asked Mr. Eounding to give him to him, 

 and after a time he did ; but, unfortunately, they could not 

 breed from him, as he had been castrated. His name was 

 Gamester ; he M'as instrumental in taking a sheep-stealer. A 

 farmer, Mr. Powell, of Loughton, lost a sheep, and John 

 Atherell, the keeper, went with Gamester to the place from 

 whence it was taken, found where it had been slaughtered, and 

 put Gamester on the line, who kept working on until he came 

 to a pond, when he went in as deep as his chest, put his head 

 down, and pulled up the sheep's entrails. This encouraged 

 them, and he went on with the line across the river into 

 Hainault, where he came to a cottage and would not leave it ; so 

 they took the liberty of searching, and there found the remains 

 of the sheep. The man was taken, tried, and convicted. 

 Gamester never opened, although he stuck to the line. 



I saw a picture of Mr. T. Eounding, painted by Cooper, on 

 Spanker, a chestnut thoroughbred horse, taken when he was 

 twenty-nine years old, with a couple of the old stag-hounds, 

 Governess and Gladsome, and Syren, a fox-hound, bred by Sir 

 Bellingham Graham, with him. This Spanker was ridden by 

 Eobert Eounding 500 miles in ten days, and the poor old fellow 

 was killed at last by the man's filling him with pollard when he 

 came in from grass. Mr. Eounding says, — 



" When we found a deer, they would not hang, but would 

 get away over the forest ; and if they were too young, we took 

 them and turned them out again. We commenced in Sep- 

 tember, and hunted stags and hinds all the winter up nearly 

 till May, but the stags would not run so weU. The keepers 

 harboured them for us, and we drew with the whole pack, and 

 sometimes stopped them, if we roused a young deer, and drew 

 again. They would hunt all through the fallow deer, and take 



