280 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



from Salt Hill to three miles beyond Eeading, and when only 

 a few of the very best were left in it, found his broad-skirted 

 pink split straight np the back as far as the collar, and his silk 

 hat, the very smoothest of the smooth, smashed to a pancake ; 

 but I must hold my hand, and return once more to Harry 

 King. 



Charles Davis's successor was, as I stated a few pages back, a 

 son of the celebrated Charles King, huntsman to Lord Althorp 

 and Sir Charles Knightley, when they had the Pytchley 

 country. Thus it will be seen that Harry King was well bred 

 for his profession, and having been early initiated in the 

 mysteries of horsemanship by riding a donkey (if I may be 

 allowed the Hibernism), he was sent into the Warwickshire 

 kennels, under Jack Wood, where he was well looked after. 

 From thence he was drafted to Mr. Drake's kennels, under Ben 

 Foot and Tom Wingfield (another capital school), and after a 

 season went to Mr. Applethwaite with the Atherstone, where 

 he remained five, and then, having been well entered to fox, 

 changed to stag, and entered the royal service in 1836, which 

 only terminated with his death. From the lowest rung of the 

 ladder he climbed to the highest, and all who knew him would 

 have been pleased to see him hold the horn for a much longer 

 period. Instead of Lords Alvanley and Clanricarde, with whom 

 he started, he had latterly to ride against London horse-dealers 

 and night-house keepers ; and on Pantaloon, by Hobbie Noble, and 

 Antelope, he well held his own until the last. His favourite 

 hound was Vigorous, which he considered the best he ever saw, 

 and, for deer, the General and Beechnut were both good in his 

 time ; and Yateley, just at the commencement of his reign, gave 

 them wonderful sport. Another, called the Doctor, after the 

 historian of " Wild Stag-hunting in Devon and Somerset," was 

 also good, and took them, in 1868, in one hour and three- 

 quarters, from Denham into Paddington Station, and Mr. De 

 Burgh told Lord Colville he was worth a hundred guineas. He 

 might be to those who like to go home by train, but that is 



