Scarlet 33 j 



Malibran, the pink of the bitches, and Melody from 

 Musical (of whom the 1 83 1 Pytchley list merely says, 

 ^'^ Bred by Lord Sondes'') ^^XQ in the five couple lot, 

 which were bought in for 1360 guineas! Minnie and 

 Merryman were own brother and sister to them, but 

 of different litters; and Mr. Combe had Minnie painted, 

 and would never part with her. Like nearly all the 

 Furrier dogs, Merryman was a splendid jumper ; and 

 on one occasion, when Lord Ducie borrowed him for 

 the Vale of White Horse, he got among the stone 

 walls and had all the fun to himself His lordship 

 gave a long prfce for Hector simply for the sake of 

 his Ranter blood, as a fork thrust at his quarters had 

 totally lamed him. He also once sent to Jack Shirley, 

 to offer him ten guineas for Castor, who was then 

 nearly worn out ; but Sir Richard Sutton had just 

 taken a dislike to him, and had ordered him and Fal- 

 staff, another Furrier dog, to be hung a few days 

 before ; while Flourisher was retained. 



In 1836, the picked twenty couple of Mr. Combe in 

 the pack had a very narrow escape, when Lincolnshire. 

 Sir Richard invited Mr. Combe to have four days in 

 the Burton country. They went down with the boiler 

 in the canal-boat to Leicester, while Will Todd 

 travelled by coach, and a bitch was taken with hydro- 

 phobia on the voyage, and bit several of them. It 

 was a melancholy time in Lincolnshire, as they hunted 

 four days and only killed one fox. One Furrier ran 

 away from the pack, and killed a lamb, and they saw 

 him no more. Another was tied temporarily to a car- 

 riage-wheel, and gnawed it in two ; and at last they 

 had to shoot four couple, get muzzles made for 

 the remainder, and van them back to Cobham. 

 Luckily the trouble stopped there, and the muzzles 

 still hang up in a shed — a sort of memento which 

 Will Todd does not at all need, as he was up three 

 weary nights with them, watching for their jaws to 

 drop 



