I40 STAG-HUNTLYG RECOLLECTIONS 



men in scarlet coats, knee breeches and gaiters, and tall 

 beaver hats with gold bands. ' Hey ! stick, stick,' is the 

 only caution and encouragement they get, both in and out 

 of season. This is the converse to the stag-hunter's cheer. 

 With us ' Get away on, hanging about there ! ' is the counsel 

 of all perfection. It must not, however, be supposed that, 

 like Sir Walter Scott's hero, the rush and fury of the chase was 

 all we cared for at Ascot. Quite the contrary. Staghounds 

 should be able to race like Persimmon, but I would have them 

 hunt like what Mr. Smith calls ' ploughholders ' ; and with 

 this object in view I used to meet in the heather districts 

 oftener, I think, than some of my hard-riding field liked. 

 What I disliked of all things was a hound which bayed 

 at its fences ; in the early part of the season the young 

 entry were a little apt to do this. It is hereditary, I believe, 

 but I think it was often due to a sort of shyness and 

 bewilderment at the stampede which a Hawthorn Hill or 

 Wokingham field means, and if not the result of heredity they 

 often come right. How well I remember a bitch called 

 Nemesis, which was actually sentenced to transportation 

 to the boar-hunting baron aforesaid. I can see her now 

 hanging in a sort of cluster with another first-season hunter 

 whose name I have forgotten, on a little bank on Mr. 

 Auckland's farm. I stopped the impetuous ' William ' 

 almost in his take-off, and sacrificed my start to give myself 

 the satisfaction of helping them over, my opinion of the 

 delinquents not being improved by my catching the thong 

 of my whip round a powerful bramble. Meanwhile, there 

 they sat, eyeing me deferentially, but making little or no 

 effort to get over. However, Comins begged Nemesis off 

 on the score of her youth and noble collaterals, and she fully 

 justified his clemency and judgment. 



Staghounds do not have to draw. Lord Henry Bentinck, 

 when he hunted the Burton country, used often on a gloomy 



