292 Silk and Scarlet. 



" Jem's Ditch" at Shillinglee, the seat of Earl Winter- 

 ton, is also pointed out to this day, and it was there, 

 when they had run their fox for five hours in the large 

 coverts, and for nearly fifty minutes more in an acre 

 spinney, and seemed as far off as ever from killing 

 him, that Jem lay in ambush, and turned him to theia 

 by moonlight, at just twenty minutes to ten. Will 

 Staples was once baffled the same way for nearly two 

 hours in an osier bed, quite as small, near the bend 

 of the Severn, which had washed all the soil from the 

 roots ; and it became at last so ridiculous to see the 

 fox trotting after the hounds, and then dodging under 

 the roots, that he had to go in and help them. 



The echoes of Jem's key-bugle are also still lingering 

 at Sladeland, and as he played " Over the hills mid far 

 aivay,'' with variations, the hounds sat up and charmed 

 in honour of their favourite musician ; and then, when 

 such encores became tedious, with one wave of his hand 

 they would go flying over the brook in a body, and 

 swing themselves round and back, at another. 



Fathers of the When Jem found himself at Heythrop,. 

 Heythrop Ken- he set to work to correct the short head 

 "^^* and neck and wide chest of the Dori- 



mont and Nectar blood, and used Rutland, Pilot, and 

 Yarborough Plunder. The Pilots had very fine 

 quality; and Harlequin, a grandson of old Pilot, from 

 Heroine, by Fitzhardinge Hector, is now one of the 

 quickest in the kennel. The Plunder bitches were 

 decidedly out of the common, but rather apt to shed 

 their somewhat coarse coats. Rutland Grappler, the 

 sire of the Wynnstay Harold, also did a good deal for 

 the kennel, but he got them rather short. A good 

 deal of Warwickshire Bluecap blood came in the 

 drafts, and Jem sent bitches to the Warwickshire Tar- 

 quin, by Belvoir Comus, from Warwickshire Testy. 

 He was a light plain 24-inch hound, and white with 

 yellow spots ; but Jim had marked him doing his 

 work over some fallows on Roleright Hills, in 1845, 



