24 SPOXTS AND ANECDOTES. 



called upon, and I have often thought of the follow- 

 ing story, which shows how contrary a Master of 

 hounds sometimes acts when he has been sore pressed 

 and has allowed his temper to run away with him. 

 The following I had many years since from a gentle- 

 man who saw the proceedings and heard the 

 benediction then pronounced. 



A gentleman who shall be nameless, and who kept 

 a very good pack of harriers, and who withal was 

 not blessed with the best of tempers, being a good 

 deal riled on one memorable occasion, lost his 

 presence of mind more than usual. He was a 

 thick-set, I may almost say a fat man, with a short 

 neck, a red face, a hot temper, and much given to 

 having the asthma, or some such complaint, which 

 caused his bellows at times to be much out of 

 order. One day, when out with his hounds, he 

 had suffered a good deal of provocation from their 

 being much overridden. It so happened that, from 

 a bridle gate in the corner of a field being locked, 

 many of the unruly gentlemen who caused him so 

 much annoyance got what is called " pounded." 

 This opportunity was too good to be lost, so 

 galloping up to them, as well as he could, puffing 

 with fat. and the broken bellows that his asthma 



