22 Saddle and Sirloin. 



side, as if listening, and sometimes with it flat on the 

 surface. When there is a worry he takes care to have 

 his back nip ; whereas old Stormer only tugs away 

 at the tail, and Ringwood is quite open to let up Billy 

 and the terriers at such a crisis. Slash was the only 

 dog which ever beat the Doctor when he wanted to 

 save his otter. That devoted man had the rest at bay 

 under an elder bush on the Ale, and the terriers would 

 not act on account of the heavy stream ; but Slash 

 would not be denied, floored him in the mud, and took 

 the otter from him then and there. The " auctioneer," 

 which Malakhoff dreaded so much, was no use what- 

 ever against such a " Molyneux the Black." The 

 Doctor remarks " that he does not know pain. Look 

 at the thumps he got from that iron hook of Bill's : — 

 his nervous system is not like other dogs — he's a dog 

 of metallic nerves." 



The long room above the stables is now ( 1 870) finished, 

 but not furnished ; a fox has been kept there since it was 

 a cub, and ere long the trick training will commence. 

 A badger again forms one of the establishment, to the 

 great delight of Betsy ; and a man hunted a buck 

 foulmart for six weeks as a consort for the ferrets, 

 which had grown slack in the Doctor's eyes, and re- 

 quired a fresh strain of blood. It was run to ground 

 several times, and made such an example of its pur- 

 suer's fingers, that the latter was perpetually under 

 medical treatment till he conquered. The Doctor has 

 made a platform nine feet from the ground round his 

 yard, and stocked it with all kinds of British flowers. 

 This is what he understands by sitting under his own 

 fig-tree in years to come, and what cares he even if 

 the otter-bites in his hands do become " the seats of 

 rheumatism." Above the long room he has a shoot- 

 ing gallery of twenty-five yards, finishing in his extra 

 bedroom, which commands a view of Chapel Hill, 

 Borthaugh, and Gala Law covers. Through an artful 

 tube in the wall,' he commands the illuminated face of 



