2 70 Silk and Scarlet. 



The Eastbury Blandford did not present any signs of 

 Kennels. unusual life. One or two masters of 

 hounds might be seen "stealing away" from the 

 " Crown" in the direction of Eastbury, by eight o'clock, 

 to have a quiet hour on the flags before the country 

 stream set in ; but scarcely another soul passed us in 

 the next five miles. The first three were along a 

 dusty road ; and it was not a little refreshing to find 

 ourselves on the Pimperne Downs at last, and Percy's 

 string of five, with *' C" and " O" on their sheets, 

 quietly returning from exercise, the leading object in 

 the foreground. Autocrat, in hound and not in horse 

 shape, was in our thoughts that day ; and leaving them 

 to wend their way inside the hedge to their stables, 

 which stand by the roadside some half-mile nearer 

 Blandford, we struck across the downs to the left. 

 Passing " the Bushes," we soon struck into the deeply- 

 wooded recesses of Eastbury Park, amid a troop of 

 browsing Devons, and some young hunting stock, 

 which at once told the tale of the " old chestnut 

 blood." Hard by the kennels the whole of the 

 seventeen puppies (eleven of them brother and sister 

 Autocrats) had politely stretched themselves out for 

 immediate inspection on a straw-spread surface beneath 

 an ash tree, and lay there dreaming and curling them- 

 selves into many a fantastic group, over which Frank 

 Grant or Landseer might have lingered with delight. 



As the lots were looked over, they were passed 

 through into the adjoining paddock ; and many a 

 Dorsetshire man gazed with bitter regret at this grand 

 pack as they " packed" for the last time under a large 

 white thorn. Oft had " The Thorn" been trolled at a 

 Dorsetshire fireside in their honour, and now, alas ! 

 but six short hours, and no blast from Treadwell could 

 summon his favourites more. 



Five minutes' walk brought us to the house, a fine 

 grey stone structure, with a broad square tower and a 

 massive ivy-clad gateway. The days of portcuUisses 



