18*5.] OF HAMPSHIRE. 145 



man in the country. He has a smile for every 



one, is very civil and obliging, and promotes 



peace and good humour wherever he goes. 



" Previous to my residing in Hampshire, I do 



not recollect having met with a regular Work- 

 ed o 



ing dragsman.by the covert's side. A coach- 

 man by the name of Wyse, however, Mr. Wyse. 

 who was a great many years on the old South- 

 ampton Union, and feathered his nest so com- 

 fortably on, what we call on the road, ' a 

 twenty-four-mile bit of ground, with fourteen 

 good coaches a week, and only one home,' 

 that he has for a long time kept his one or 

 two hunters, and enjoyed himself as a man 

 ought to do who has the means in his power.* 

 "He has now left the coach, and retired 

 on the fruits of his industry. I met him 

 several times with the Hambledon hounds, 

 and could not help smiling to see him double- 

 thonging his horse (which, by the way, he does 

 gallantly for a man of his weight, and the 

 cattle he rides), as if he had him at the wheel 

 of the old coach, with six in and twelve out, 

 and ten minutes behind time. Wyse has some 



* Mr. Wyse arrived at Popham Lane in the morning and had to 

 wait till evening for his down coach, which enabled him to hunt when- 

 ever the hounds met in that quarter. Mr. Wyse died June 7, 1837; a 

 memoir of him will be found in the Sporting Magazine, July, p. 287. 

 Mr. Wyse always rode with a spare stirrup-leather round his horse's 

 neck, as he said, " in case a friend's leather broke." The limits of this 

 work will not allow me to record many amusing anecdotes of him. — 

 Author. 



