288 Silk and Scarlet. 



lamented Hunt Secretary and a few old Berkshire 

 men, some of them cup winners, were grouped about 

 among the nine-and-a-half couple of entries. Having 

 once seen Joe Maiden judge hounds, with his hands 

 folded across his breast, we shall cease to have any 

 faith in the saying, " That no man was ever so wise as 

 Chancellor Thurlow looked." Even if Joe heard the 

 voice of a relative behind him, whom he had not seen 

 for years, it is even betting that he would not deign to 

 turn round, till his kennel mind was quite made up. 

 Robert Tocock was still pale and weak from a crushing 

 fall ; and when Joe was at his gravest, he kept tapping 

 his foot for an indefinite period with his stick in despair 

 of getting a recognition of his sentiments any other 

 way, and then found that he had been working at the 

 wooden one. Then there was Will Long, airy and as 

 stylish as ever, after his seventy years' pilgrimage, with 

 Jem Hills at his side, still unconsciously replying — 

 " Yes^ Master .'" as in those great days when with Will 

 Todd he whipped into him in the Badminton and the 

 Heythrop. Jem doesn't dwell when he is Iii Banco ; 

 but with one offhand glance, he just catches the gay 

 workman of his fancy, and thinks about it no more ; 

 \vhile Harry Ayris, after a look, about half-measure 

 between Jem's and Joe's, turns round to consult his 

 learned brothers, with that quiet shake of his head, 

 which has been fatal to so many a Berkeley and Chel- 

 tenham fox, when hounds drop to hunting, and he falls 

 t J thinking. 



Judicial Bearing The bitches came first, and very soon 

 of Jem Hills. ^11 but Sophy by Fleecer, Frantic by 

 Forester, and Harriet, Harmless, and Helen, by Her- 

 cules, were handed to Harris and Pike, outside. " Put 

 Frantic and Harmless out .'" was the next injunction 

 of Mr. Morrell to Clark. Then it was the fair Helen's 

 turn to go ; but she was after Jem Hills' own heart ; 

 and when Mr. Morrell resolved himself into a teller, 

 Jem placed her second. And now the scrutiny of 



