78 Silk and Scarlet. 



past, better than those of recent date. We have 

 picked up fragments from an octogenarian, whose 

 memory is of this caste, and who upwards of fifty 

 years ago frequented the glades of this charming 

 woodland. At no period of history and in no country 

 was the noble science of hunting more eagerly fol- 

 lowed or more thoroughly enjoyed. Although old 

 Meynell was not there to aid them with his counsel, 

 his genius pervaded them, and the real love of the 

 chase was inherent in the foresters of those times. 

 Placed in a remote corner of the country, they were 

 little heard of ; and but for a few strangers who visited 

 them in the month of April, the world would hardly 

 have known that such a pack as that of the New 

 Forest existed. There were no enclosures to stop or 

 lame the hounds, no sheep to foil the ground, and no 

 hawbuck shepherd to head the fox, but the country 

 was as wild as nature made it. The foxes, the deer, 

 and some wild ponies were its only inhabitants. The 

 old foresters were cast in a rough mould, and had no 

 recourse to the foreign aid of ornament. Skilled as 

 they were in shirking a bog or bobbing their heads 

 under the boughs of an oak, they were out of their 

 element when they got into the open amongst the 

 fences. Facing a brook, or topping a stake-and-bound, 

 was not in their category. Yellow buckskins and 

 brown tops was the only dandyism they aspired to. 

 The New Fo- Williams and Harbin were two of the 

 Testers. oldest inhabitants of the wild, and they 

 both knew hunting well. Williams was a light 

 weight, and saw as much of the hounds in the course 

 of the year as any of them. Harbin was heavy, and 

 not a first-rate horseman. John Warde used to tell a 

 story, that one day they killed a fox near his house, 

 and he asked him to dine with him. The old Squire 

 said, " I'm all in a muck sweat ; but if you will lend 

 me a shirt, I don't mind roughing it for once." " I 

 will lend you one with great pleasure," replied Harbin, 



