Show of Terriers at Yarm. 157 



Tom, who had found a friendly rent in the canvas of 

 the terrier tent soon told a cluster of owners their fate. 

 " Ah I man," says he to his next friend, " that lang 

 chap it treads reet eneugh ; they're leaking at nowt but 

 the slape coats and the white uns." And so it was, for 

 Captain Williams, a true lover of the sort, for Venom 

 and Rage of the RufTord's sake, had selected three 

 out of the sixteen whites for the prizes. Ben Morgan's 

 fourth son, little Joe, was lying on the top platform, 

 caressing Nettle vigorously in honour of her being 

 second. She was seven years old, and had done Ben 

 a world of honest service both in drawing and breed- 

 ing. Once she was land locked in an East Riding 

 earth with four badgers in front of her and two behind, 

 and Ben said it was like discovering a subterranean 

 Zoological Gardens. Martin Care of the Morpeth was 

 first with his two-year-old, Pincher, which had only 

 been three times in an earth, but as foxes take to 

 rocks, pit drifts, sandhills, and conduits pretty freely 

 in that country, he was in for a very rich and varied 

 experience. Charles Treadwell was third, with Wasp 

 or Tickler, but he hung rather more to Gyp, a broad- 

 breasted black-and-tan whose grandfather Jack had 

 been with him at Quorn and Coldstream. The six- 

 teen in the rough interest were of all colours, blue, 

 white, yellow, black-and-tan, and brown-and-white. 

 Their owners, of course, said that they wouldn't ex- 

 change theirs for the winners "no, not for two of 'em" 

 and also drew much comfort from the fact that a soli- 

 tary white " slape coat" had a wall eye. Mr. Hill's 

 Bonny Bell was the " sensation" foxhound of the day, 

 and the greatest character among the huntsmen was 

 Robert Bruce of the Haydon. He was a tall, lean, 

 hard-bitten sort of old fellow, clad in a velvet cap and 

 well stained scarlet swallow tails. He brought two 

 couple, but they were of a coarse, queer stamp, no 

 doubt " beggars to ga?i" among their native heather 

 and Scotch fir plantings, and ready, in the words of 



