IS 13.] OF HAMPSHIRE. 133 



and where he greatly distinguished himself, 

 both as a sportsman and a rider. He has been 

 nine years with Mr. Villebois' hounds, with 

 which he has given the greatest satisfaction to 

 the country and to his master. 



"Having seen most of the best packs of 

 hounds this country has produced for these 

 last twenty years, it may not be presuming to 

 say that I have seen many of the best hunts- 

 men of that period, but I do not imagine that 

 any of them could have excelled Foster, with 

 his present experience, as a woodland hunts- 

 man. He has an excellent eye as well as ear 

 to his hounds, is very quick and clever in his 

 casts, and his language to hounds is delight- 

 fully sporting and good. He is now only in 

 his fortieth year. 



" Foster, however, has one great advantage 

 with Mr. Villebois ; he is uncommonly well as- 

 sisted. I am no man for a pun, and still more 

 ignorant of the lingo called ' slang,' but I must 

 be allowed to say that his first whipper-in is 

 quite ' a top-Sawyer.'* His second Sawyer and 

 whipper-in, John Jennings, is very Jennin s s - 

 good, and on my asking Foster whether he 

 were any relation to Ben Jennings, who hunts 



* " His name is Sawyer, and the Hants people call him Mr. Sliaw- 

 yer." — Nimrod. 



