Fox-HuxTixG. • 203 



of attention I think your Lordship might at 

 least have condescended to notice.' " 



Yet within ten years from that time, one 

 fleet of our formidable ' Vixen Craft ' was at 

 sea, and another being fitted out for service. 

 Little perhaps did the spectators, who proudly 

 gazed upon the swarm of their dark hulls 

 at Spithead, know that the projector of them 

 was a fox-hunter, and that to a fox-hunter's 

 clear head and far-seeing eye was the gallant 

 Wildman mainly indebted for the single little 

 vessel (the 'Staunch') with which he demolished 

 four large junks in the Chinese seas. Yet 

 it has been said that Mr. Smith was a fox- 

 hunter, and nothing more. The verdict of 

 true Englishmen will be very different. 



In these reminiscences I have said very 

 little about dogs. That is a subject upon 

 which I am most mad, and upon which I could 

 dilate till the end of time. I have thought 

 of dogs all day, dreamt of dogs all night ; in 

 fact, I am doggy to the backbone. I have 

 had dogs of all kinds (that is to say, sporting 

 dogs, for I leave other breeds out of the 

 question, as the "fancy" is not at all to 

 my taste), and I believe I have had upwards 



