AN ENTHUSIASTIC WIIIPPEK-IN. 151 



opened almost involuntarily, and out came the 

 " Tally-ho !" He knew perfectly well it was 

 against all rules, and he had received many severe 

 lectures on the subject, to very little purpose, for 

 Jack had not patience to view him quietly away, 

 and clear of the first field ; but, as he expressed 

 himself to me, " his heart seemed to jump up into 

 his mouth" the moment he saw the fox break 

 covert. He was undeniably one of the most 

 enthusiastic fellows I ever saw with hounds, and 

 almost crazy when we were running into our fox ; 

 and being in all other respects a good servant, I 

 made some allowance for his insane propensity to 

 halloo foxes back into covert. 



I had another whipper-in, a great slip-slop, who 

 was ever in the wrong place, and seldom viewed a 

 fox at all; he was always coffee-housing with 

 some particular friend, and of course no fox 

 approached his position. He possessed a thin 

 shrill voice, his rate sounded as a cheer, and he 

 had no notion of getting at hounds, or stopping 

 them running riot. He was, moreover, conceited 

 as ignorant. We were one day, during the cub- 

 hunting, drawing some coverts on the hill-side, 

 where outflying deer often harboured, and I had 

 given him a particular caution about encouraging 



