350 Silk and Scarlet, 



and flew the hedge into the field, and spoke ; and 

 Httle as he beheved her, she at last seemed so deter- 

 mined, that Will backed her over three fields. Not 

 another hound spoke up to that point ; but the cry- 

 began in the third field ; the trot merged into a 

 gallop ; they raced into their fox after three miles, 

 and the credit and life of the future dam of Comus 

 was saved. 



Will Goodaii's Two long December evenings we 

 i^ia'-y- spent with Will Goodall at Belvoir, to 

 look over his diary, and have a little chat about 

 the collection of materials for this chapter. He went 

 with us heart and soul, when he heard it sketched 

 out ; gave us what he called " the cream of my hunt- 

 ing fun ;" and there are, in fact, few pages in which 

 we do not recognise some story or remark that we owe 

 to him. Still there would have been many more, but 

 for his peculiar dislike to speak of any run, however 

 great it might be, without a head at the end. It was 

 dismissed into the abyss of Time, as not worth re- 

 membering. Writing seemed his delight ; and instead 

 of preserving them in print, he actually copied out the 

 whole of the price-lists of the hounds at the Quorn 

 sales, to which he felt far too sad to go. His cor- 

 respondence with other huntsmen was enormous ; and 

 in the Exhibition year he visited sixteen kennels, and 

 never got to Hyde -Park at all. He loved these out- 

 ings, but still he was glad to get home ; and watching 

 his bees by the hour, and playing with his boys at 

 cricket, were his chief summer pleasures. Croxton 

 Races he enjoyed amazingly ; and as usual he came 

 to his wife for a handful of silver, for his friends 

 amongst the yokels, who generally expected a glass of 

 ale, if he had not caught them heading foxes or giving 

 false halloos during the season. They used always to 

 be on the look-out for him, as he kept the course with 

 his whips, and many a joke passed between them. 

 There was a great story against one of them for his 



