216 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



the sheds, all windows were closed, the glass frosted by the 

 breath inside; and in all houses containing large families a 

 coughing choi-us was kept up by every mother's son and 

 daughter : twins hooped a duet ; the father or grandfather, out 

 of work or too ill to go to it, occasionally coughed a bass solo, 

 and not a soul seemed able to speak but the good-wife, who had 

 the care of everybody, and talked for them all ! It was a pro- 

 pitious morning for the sport, and my retriever Jessie and myself 

 got out of the little carriage used for pux-poses of the field, as 

 if we had been sugared for a Christmas present. Horse to the 

 stable, man and dog to the settle. " No ! my good hostess," I 

 exclaimed, to Mrs. Carey, " not to the little parlour," which on 

 these occasions had a fire ready lighted for us ; " I am all for 

 the well-smoked chimney corner, its settle, and the blazing turf. 

 Now the little round table, a glass of ' dog's nose ' (gin and beer 

 with a little sugar and a toast in it, white with froth as if in 

 mockery at the snow), and then Til be thawed by the time of 

 Lord Malmsbury's arrival."" Down we sat, Jessie and I, to 

 enjoy our toast and ale, the two heavy double John Mantons of 

 eleven gauge, their snowed -on covers taken off, in a warm 

 comer. 



In came a man. " Mercy on us, good fellow, shut the 

 door;" the very snow wants to work in and warm its pallid 

 face. " Cold morning, sir," was the reply. " Pint o' beer, 

 mum ! " — bolted in no time — and off the rustic went, flapping 

 his arms like a windmill. "Dash that door, there's the latch 

 again." But this time it only opened sufficiently to admit a 

 head — a queer-looking black face it had to it, with grizzled 

 wool above, matching the falling sleet on other things : it 

 begged for the still outside body to be permitted to come in for 

 a moment and warm itself " No," was the hostess's repellant 

 reply, as she bustled up to the door to shut it, at the I'isk of 

 beheading the trembling requisitionist. " This is no place just 

 now for the like o' you ; " — alluding, in all probability, to my 

 presence, and the expected approach of Lord Malmsbury. I 

 saw the repulsed body, head and all, as its owner, a poor Negro, 



