MR. MUSTERS AND HIS HOUNDS. 35 



frequently seen it, will not, on that account, be so 

 much astonished at the following anecdote. During 

 one of the seasons that Mr. Musters hunted Northamp- 

 tonshire, the hounds were to meet at that well-known 

 cover Badby Wood, and were taken on the day 

 previous by his huntsman, Smith, who lived so many 

 years with Lord Middleton, and afterwards with Mr. 

 Osbaldeston, to sleep at the Bulls Head, at \Yeedon. 

 On arriving at a place where the road from Northamp- 

 ton converges into the road by which they were 

 travelling, suddenly some of the most forward of them 

 became restless, and, by their manner, the huntsman 

 concluded that a disturbed fox had crossed near that 

 place ; in a few moments the whole pack, which had 

 been fed, and were dreaming, as they plodded along, 

 of the "joys of the next coming day," became roused 

 from their torpor, and in one moment more were 

 "away;" the huntsman swore the devil was in them, 

 the whippers rode and rated to no purpose ; at last, in 

 turning a corner, about a mile further on, who should 

 be seen but Mr. Musters himself? who had come by 

 the second road, and was jogging quietly along on the 

 hack which usually carried him to cover, to dine and 

 sleep, previously to hunting, at the house of a gentle- 

 man in that neighbourhood. The Squire, no doubt, 

 almost fancied that he had " had his day," and that, 

 like the canine attendants of his predecessor Actaion, 

 his faithful followers were immediately about to per- 

 form his obsequies. An attempt to describe the 

 delight of the whole pack, and of their gallant general, 

 would, I fear, spoil the picture ; one favourite actually 

 jumped upon the quarters of the horse, and licked his 



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