300 Silk and Scarlet, 



the few hounds whom the Earl ever had painted. No 

 one loved better to sit at the corner of Barrow Wood, 

 to watch for the vixen, or to swim the Severn from 

 market near Hawe Bridge, and take his chance of 

 fouling the rope. His love of varmint was not con- 

 fined to foxes, but the rats had the unlimited run of 

 his sitting-room, and he knew them all by sight so 

 well, that when Mr. Giles's first whip clipped one over, 

 his house-keeper exclaimed, with her apron to her 

 eyes, that its death was as much as her place was 

 worth, as " master would be sure to miss it." 

 Earl Fitzhard- The Earl himself did not fancy any 

 inge. dog-hound above twenty-three, and never 

 cared how small the bitches were. He never liked 

 them shy of tongue, and it was no matter if they 

 were straight or coarse, provided their work was only 

 good. '' I doiit ca7'e for all their looks',' he was wont 

 to say ; " huntsDicu forget to breed hounds for their 

 noses ; tJiey're all for looks ; — give me the pack that wilt 

 /zill foxes!' " We musn't forget the old sort," was the 

 maxim he impressed upon Harry to the last, and by 

 that he principally meant the blood which Mr. Corbet 

 and Will Barrow did such wonders with in Warwick- 

 shire. He also bought a pack of hounds from Major 

 Bland in Herefordshire, a rough-looking lot, who, like 

 Mr. Corbet's, would hunt a fox and catch him when 

 others couldn't handle him at all. The yellow pied 

 Monitor went back to Major Bland's sort, and Wolds- 

 man from the celebrated Beaufort Wanton was one of 

 his best sons. A second cross, between Beaufort 

 Woldsman and their own Delicate produced Despe- 

 rate, Dissolute, Demon, Dervise, Dalliance, Dinah, 

 and Diligent. The Earl was wont to say of Desperate, 

 that he was the best he ever saw or had, and that 

 with a fair scent, he would not be afraid to take out 

 those seven and catch any fox breathing. Harry 

 Ayris always hung a little to Dinah, but he thought 

 rthat her daughter Waspish by Fitzhardinge Waterloo 



