82 SPORTING REMINISCENCES [1800 to 



hounds in his time, but his first pack at Sutton 

 were some draft fox-hounds given him by Mr. 

 Viilebois ; then he kept small harriers, beagles, 

 and stag-hounds. 



Gelert, in his " Guide to the Hounds of Eng- 

 land," published in 1849, said of his harriers : 



"They hunt deer after Christinas, but the 

 practice does not interfere with the steadiness 

 of the hounds, nor make them in any respect 

 riotous. Mr. Scotland is a thorough hounds- 

 man, and though he plumes himself on the 

 character of his pack, which is certainly very 

 good, yet he leans to the more noble game, and 

 has an acquaintance not only with all the packs 

 of fox-hounds in Hampshire, but literally, it 

 may be said, with each individual hound com- 

 posing those packs." 



Mr. Scotland has one of the prettiest seats 

 on a horse that was ever seen, and in his day 

 was a capital man across country. He always 

 liked a bit of blood. About the best animal 

 he ever had was Mouse, a dark chesnut. Bill 

 Bean, one of the best judges of a horse in Eng- 

 land, said " Mouse was a real beauty; you 

 don't see such form in half a century." Mr. 

 Scotland rode this perfect animal for sixteen 

 seasons, and sold him at twenty years old to 

 Mr. Charles Nevill of Holt, Leicestershire, for 

 130 guineas (a large price in those days), and 



