114 



STAG-HCWTIXG RECOLLECTIONS 



CHAPTEE VI 



THE STAGHOUNI) 



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



Brach Merriman, the poor cur is emboss'd ; 



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



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



At the hedge-corner, in the coldest fault ? 



I would not lose the do"; for twenty pound. 

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



He cried upon it at the merest loss 



And twice to-day pick'd out the dullest scent : 



Trust me, I take him for the better dog. 

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



I would esteem him worth a dozen such. 



Lord Foppingtox in ' The Eelapse ' declares that hi 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 Cynegeticon runs into twelve books, and in many respects is 

 curiously modern. A passage occurs in the sixth book beginning : iirftSav Se 

 nepl Thv Kayw dxn. 5f(Aoi/ -Koiva-ovcri r^ KvnToyirr) ffvv rals ovpah ra (Tw^ara S\a 

 (TweirtKpa5aiuov(Tai. iroK(iJ.iKws iiri<p(p6ixivai, (piKovi'iKws 7rapa0e'ou(roi, (rurTpexoi/aaj 

 <pi\on6vois, (TwiaTCLfjifvai raxv, duffTafxevai. 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. 



