114 STAG-HrXTLXG RECOLLECTIONS 



CHAPTEE VI 



THE STAGHOUNI) 



Nobleman. Huntsman, I charge tbee, tender well my hounds : 



Brach Merriman, the poor cur is emboss'd ; 



And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach. 



baw'st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good 



At the hedge-corner, in the coldest fault ? 



I would not lose the dog for twenty pound. 

 Huntsman. Why, Belman is as good as he, my lord ; 



He cried u2-)on it at the merest loss 



And twice to-day i^ick'd out the dullest scent : 



Trust me, I take him for the better dog. 

 Nobleman. Thou art a fool : if Echo were as tieet, 



I would esteem him worth a dozen such. 



LoED FoppiXGTOX in ' The Relapse ' declares that in his 

 opinion a man of parts and breeding can do without books, 

 and amuse himself very well with the ' natural sprouts ' of 

 his own imagination. But there are times when we should 

 think of others as well as ourselves, and Lord Foppington 

 had not undertaken to write a book about the Buckhounds. 

 He was much too sensible. So at the outset let me acknow- 

 ledge that a considerable portion of this chapter is the 

 result of books and reading. The literature of the subject is 

 large and rather formidable.' Scribes are not always authori- 

 ties, and many of the best authorities are not scribes. 



' Xenophon's Cijncgcticon runs into twelve books, and in many resjjjects is 

 curiously modern. A passage occurs in the sixth book beginning : iirn^av Se 

 Trepl rhv Kaya Sxri, SfjXov iroiiiffovm r^ Kwriyirrj avv rats ovpais ra (rcii/xaTa '6\a 

 irvvfTTiKpaSalvovaai. TroXefxiKcis eTncpepdfieuai, cpiKovfiKuis irapadeovffat, (rvvrpixovaai 

 c^iKotSvois, (TvvKTTafxivaL Td-xv, StiaTafievat. etc. etc., describing a run on the Attic 

 Highlands which might have been written, say, by thelate Mr. Dear of Winchester 

 of a run with his pretty harriers over Worthy Down. 



