128 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



as well as clatfodils. But from a hunting point of view every- 

 thing went wrong. There was little or no scent, unusually 

 little for a deer, and the hounds were either very stale or 

 slack or very much out of humour. Lord Wolverton had 

 warned us not to seem to take any notice of them, or under 

 any provocation crack a whip or speak to a hound, and he 

 invited our particular attention to one old dog who, if trifled 

 with, or if he imagined himself trifled with, came straight 

 at your boot ; we noted his terribly uniform markings as well 

 as we were able with reverent respect. 



As far as I recollect we never ran a yard, and the hounds 

 acquiesced in every difficulty. But we enjoyed our day. 

 We were in a fine country, and at the end of the season 

 this sticky vale rides well. A yellow bay horse I was riding, 

 called the Stag, sprang on and off the roomy banks with 

 all the airs of a dancing-master. At one moment Lord 

 Wolverton seemed to conteinplate buying him at 800/. 1 

 did all I could to encourage him ; unsuccessfully, however. 

 The black and tan strain survives in Dorsetshire in the 

 kennel of a spirited lady. Their nose and perseverance are 

 tested by drag-hunting after a fleet page-boy. The other day 

 Buttons only just got home in time, and slammed the door 

 of a friendly outhouse in the very jaws of his pursuers, 

 who were in quite an ' Uncle Tom's Cabin ' humour. ' The 

 hounds,' said Mr. Merthyr Guest, when he heard of it, 

 ' richly deserved the boy.' 



The day we hunted from Wycombe the St. Huberts ran 

 pretty well for the first twenty minutes in an orderly string, 

 but with persistence and a sonorous, if rather intermittent, 

 cry. There was nothing extraordinary, however, in the way 

 of music, but this may have been partly due to the line taking 

 us over dry cafe-au-lait-coloured fallows and ploughs. Just 

 as in the Vale of Blackmoor, the chorus was loudest at the 

 fences ; to my mind a detestable trick. It was said of the 



