Scarlet. 31^ 



the prayers, and the sayings, and the doings, of 

 the celebrated Holderness master (whom he irreve- 

 rently wrote of as " Tommy Hodgson"), and his 

 equally famous whip, Will Danby. The former has 

 hung up his horn for years, but Will is just enter- 

 ing upon the fiftieth season of his life in scarlet;, 

 and although the grey hairs may be seen straggling 

 under his cap, he is a wonderful instance of what a 

 hardy Yorkshire constitution, good temper, and rigid 

 temperance can effect for a man in " these degenerate 

 days." Will is quite a key to Yorkshire hunting his- 

 tory ; but tiles have, of later years, become his thorn 

 in the flesh. " This draining^' as he emphatically 

 observed to us, when we took counsel with him near 

 the Hurworth kennels, " is just tJie ru n of scent ; 1 

 wish tJityd be done with it ; when I ivas a boy, we could 

 hunt jrom morning till nighty He was born near 

 Hornby Castle ; and the ruling passion with him was 

 strongly fostered at fourteen, when one of the farm- 

 houses, included in his father's lease, was converted by 

 the Duke of Leeds into a kennel for his hounds. 

 This was the crisis of his fate, and henceforward he 

 devoted his attention, much more to helping the feeder 

 to walk the hounds about, than to grounding himself 

 in the elements of agriculture. His expressed views 

 on drainage would, in fact, have militated so strongly^ 

 against his advancement, that it was well that he 

 established himself in the good graces of Kit Scaife 

 the huntsman, and found a more genial outlet for his 

 energies. When his seven years' probation was over, 

 some difficulty occurred with the Duke of Cleveland 

 about foxes, and the hounds were given up. The rare 

 lot of Pandolpho hunters were sent to the hammer at 

 Tattersall's, and Kit Scaife, who was always a great 

 man for kennel condition, took the head of his Grace's^ 

 racing stud. 



It was a sad pity, as the country was The Duke of 

 a singularly wild and beautiful one, all Leeds s Country. 



