Scarlet. 267 



whom would fling their tongues when none of the 

 other " Belvoir black tans " would own to it. Still, 

 however remarkable Rival might have been in this 

 respect, the greatest natural wonder of Mr. Farquhar- 

 son's pack was his Splendour, who resolutely refused 

 for three years to leave the huntsman's heels, and then 

 felt what a pickpocket would style " the uncontrol- 

 lable impulse." Jezebel by Beaufort Harasser equally 

 withstood all Joe Maiden's endearments till long after 

 Christmas ; and yet, when he was casting wide near 

 Bewerton, in the Woore country, on a very stormy day, 

 he saw her suddenly go and feel for the line of scent by 

 herself through a large herd of cattle, and then speak 

 to it through a meuse at last. Vanquisher also baffled 

 Kit Naylor for one season and a cub hunting, and 

 then suddenly spoke to it on a flagged footpath, of 

 all places, as he was casting down a lane ; but still 

 Dorsetshire Splendour has quite the palm for obstinacy 

 as yet. 



Mr. Farquharson was fondest of Short Mr. Farquhar- . 

 and Clifton Woods, and Melcombe Park sons stud. 

 in the Vale; but his greatest runs during the last 

 twenty years have been from Uddens and the Decoy 

 Pond near Kingston Lacey. The former was eleven 

 miles without a check, fast across the Heath, slower 

 from Charlbury Hill through Chettle Wood, and then 

 a brilliant finish from scent to view over the Downs 

 to Thickthorn Hill. On the second day they had 

 sixteen miles of it, plough and down ; and he hung 

 very little either in Badbury Rings or the Chettle 

 Wood Covers, but crossed the Downs by Long 

 Critchell, through Oakley Wood, and past Woody- 

 ates Inn to Pentridge Hill, where Mr. Farquharson, 

 on Champion, was among the few left to see Jem get 

 off Poplin and give the " Whaw Hoop !" Poplin was 

 an Irish mare, and left several colts — Spectre, Will-o'- 

 the-Wisp, &c., by Hobgoblin (whose blood goes back 

 through Annette to Phantom), as her legacy to the 



