A FOX-HUNTER'S SUMMER 93 



he to me, says he, Bill — " " Stop ! " again roared the Court, 

 " we have nothing to do with Sir William Codrington." It was 

 useless though ; Long would tell them the tale in his own way, 

 or not at all ; so I was then called to give evidence on the 

 hound's value. 



I said that if the young hound was such as was described to 

 me, full-grown and handsome, and over the distemper, and fit 

 to join the pack for entry, he must be worth, to his master, not 

 less than twenty pounds, or more. On this Serjeant Talfourd, 

 who was for the defence, stared, and, in cross-examination, 

 asked me " how I arrived at the value of the animal ? " My 

 reply was, " through what I knew it to cost a master of hounds 

 to breed it ; the numbers that die ; and the numbers that fall 

 short in figure, and the few that are fit to ' entei-.' " Talfoiu'd 

 appeared satisfied, and no other question was asked me, when 

 the jui-y found for the plantifF. The amount of damage I do 

 not remember. 



I also sent a quiet, line-hunting, inoffensive bitch, called 

 Hannah, who came to me astray, to Mr. Osbaldeston's kennel, 

 under Jack Stephens, to a hound called Funner, or to any he 

 i-ecommended, if Funier was too much engaged. She bred me 

 three puppies, who turned out very well ; they were by Chorister, 

 and, as I expected fi-om what I had heard, with plenty of 

 flying straightneckedness, to make her progeny lift their heads 

 when the scent served. 



I think my kennel doors showed the scalps of fourteen brace 

 of foxes at the close of the first season ; and the season over, I 

 amused myself with fishing, haymaking, preserving game, round- 

 ing the puppies, and exercising my hounds. I remember, one 

 beautiful summer's night, being awakened by the challenge, the 

 hunting challenge of hounds, not the bay of the bitches that 

 were in hutches with their whelps, but the tongue of a hound 

 on scent. At first, I thought I must have dreamed it ; but on 

 listening, I heard a hound distinctly speak to a scent ; he was 

 then joined by the tongues of several others, the cry at the 

 same time moving from place to place. I got up directly, as 



