302 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



his furze and moorland, and which, from the nature of the 

 ground, were always beating him in his efforts to keep them 

 within bounds. On this wild tract, which forms a wide dis- 

 trict, commencing about a mile from his house, there is every 

 chance for the rabbit, if pursued by ordinary means. Ferreting 

 is difficult, for the old earths are deep, intricate, and extensive. 

 It is always a great treat to me to have a day's hunting with 

 these beautiful beagles. 



" A very few years ago Giant was the dwarf of the pack — 

 now he is drafted as too large ; whilst, as to formation, they are 

 equal to the Poltimore or Belvoir hounds. They go through 

 the performance of a regular pack with supreme gravity (as 

 fox-hounds would think, if they do think), like a set of puppets. 

 It has a serio-comic appearance to see Mr. Crane start from his 

 Liliputian kennel, with its dog doll's-house furniture of troughs 

 and beds, followed by a pack of hounds not so large as rabbits, 

 of the recognized colours and markings, and with all the 

 importance (I am writing of the beagles, mind, and not of 

 Mr, Crane) of full-sized stag-hounds— a sort of attempt at dignity 

 which Tom Thumb, now in middle life, might assume if a lady, 

 forgetting that she saw in the mannikin the father of a family 

 of pigmies, took him in her arms to kiss him as of yore. 



" Mr. Crane, on his model little black hunter, with the horn, 

 all regular, seems scarcely able to repress a smile as he starts to 

 draw his coverts for a tough old buck, though it will be no 

 joke to get away from Clamerous, Pansey, Duster, Gamester, 

 Chimer, Eally, Goldfinch, and the rest of them ; and the heart 

 of their game must beat faster in his ' form ' as he feels the 

 gorse shaking, or catches a glance of these busy sterns feathering 

 as they plunge in, and presently open in full chorus, and, as 

 they get a view and race at him ^with their sterns down,' poor 

 bunny comes back to them so fast that we expect to see him 

 rolled over presently. However, he doubles through some 

 rushes and yellow ferns, and they ' throw up.' The black pony 

 and the master pick their way deliberately amongst the furze 



