296 Silk and Scar' let. 



broken up. He was buried where he fell, and the 

 tree is called, in affectionate remembrance of hirn, 

 " Ranter's Oak," to this day. 



Lifter was a grandson of Rocket's, and strained to 

 Lord Fitzhardinge's kennel on his dam's side. His 

 nose would have delighted his lordship beyond 

 measure, as he would speak to the least touch of a fox, 

 and was in fact one of the very few drag hounds left ; 

 such as they used to boast of in the Holderness in 

 Mr. Hodgson's day, which (as they would have it), 

 feathered at the hedges three hours and ten minutes, 

 after their fox had gone through. He had this pecu- 

 liarity, that he never would draw a cover, but tried 

 every meuse all round. 



^, . Clarendon, by Ranter did as much for 



Clarendon. . __ ,'' r-r»i. 1 



the Heytnrop as any 01 Rockets de- 

 scendants, and got a great many sandy-coloured 

 hounds. Mr Morrell used him ; and Conqueror, who 

 was lost on the ice along with Royalist and Pedlar, was 

 by him. It was a miracle how the whole pack escaped 

 that day. They were ruiming across the ice near 

 New Bridge, when it broke, and let the body of the 

 pack through, and then closed and caught the three, 

 while Clark and Will Maiden could give no aid. Cla- 

 rendon himself went abroad in the drift, as his pace 

 was so tremendous that he could go clean away from 

 the pack, and they were always hunting him and the 

 fox as well. Middleton by Clarendon was, in this 

 respect, still worse than his sire, and Jem lost many a 

 fox through him. He would not throw his tongue till 

 lie had got half-a-mile, and then he would try fairly to 

 race his fox to death over the walls. 



T 1 Hills Having so often observed Tom Hills 



on the Epsom hill, in his green coat and 

 top-boots, taking his Derby observations, like an old 

 Surrc}' general, from the back of Ransley or The 

 Advocate, we determined to view him in his sphere of 

 home usefulness, and sought Garston Hall kennels 



