Scarlet. 357 



him," there occurs an entry, "Sept. 19th, 1818, dug 

 Brampton Wood fox out, and found five badgers in 

 one drain." Scarcely any are left now ; and one of 

 those few is transplanted to the Brocklesby country 

 to act as an architect of earths. 



Mr. Assheton Smith's Denmark was a Badgers 

 most wonderful dog for badgers, and very 

 soon learnt, under Jack Shirley's tuition, that the 

 bridge of the nose and the brisket were the only 

 vulnerable points. The majority of hounds do not 

 enjoy it like a fox, and never know what to make of 

 it as it runs through the low cover, or faces them with 

 its back against a tree. Sherwood Forest used to be 

 very full of them, and so was " the Dukery." Mr. 

 Lumley Savile's hounds, which then hunted these 

 parts, came across them so frequently, that they learnt 

 to " unbutton a jack-badger's jacket just like a rabbit." 

 On one occasion, when the earths had been more than 

 usually well stopped, they took forty couple into 

 Winkbourne Hills and Acrine Brale, and were home 

 again before nine, with three foxes and four badgers 

 for the hunting journal. The music that morning was 

 like "a peal of church-bells"; and when the hounds 

 got back to kennel, they looked as if they had been 

 inside a dead horse. 



Mr. Savile's pack were a very rough- j^^ Mxxs^i^xs. 

 looking lot ; but still Mr. Musters fancied 

 their Rallywood and Regent, and bred extensively 

 from them in 1820. The Nottinghamshire Squire was 

 very fond of small bitches, from twenty-one to twenty- 

 two inches, and began his breeding principally from 

 Lord Yarborough and the Duke of Rutland's Saladin, 

 whom Mr. Shawe always said was his best. Saladin's 

 daughter Proserpine was the dam of the celebrated 

 Pilot (by Rutland Rasselas), who came to Mr. Musters 

 in a draft, and became tJie hound of his heart. Know- 

 ing him to be peculiar in his habits, especially in 

 drawing a cover, he would never let him be spoken to, 



