The Dicke of Devonshire's Herd. 381 



always " ran so stout, and kept their backs up and 

 their heads so well down." Sunbeam's head was his 

 idea of perfection, and he delighted in Sam and his 

 " beautiful style of running — so true that you might 

 ride for miles after him, and never see his nob." 

 Waterloo was his wrencher and great " dog on 

 plough," Barrator his " acrobat," and in fact he never 

 went to Lytham without going to see the spot where 

 the black " pressed his hare to a gate, and went round 

 as if on a pivot, turned her back, and killed her in his 

 second jump." As a killer, he considered nothing 

 superior to Cerito " for safety and science ;" and 

 Ladylike's and British Lion's knack of stopping on 

 the side of a hill, along with Mocking Bird's power of 

 throwing herself at the hare further off than any grey- 

 hound he ever saw, never lacked a mention. He loved 

 the sport for its own sake, and understood field 

 management and beating to a nicety ; and he always 

 said that, however long the day, he never lacked Mr. 

 A. Graham as his companion when they left off.*' 



From Skibeden we skirted the many " windings of 

 the silver coast," on the branch line towards Ulver- 

 stone. The sea breaks under the very wall of the 

 railway, and winds in and out among innumerable 

 creeks, clothed with dark-coloured plantations, which 

 slope down to the water's edge. In fact, the marine 

 and rural scenery are so strangely blended, that at 

 one moment there was nothing to be seen but a few 

 seagulls out for a wade, or a stately heron standing on 

 one leg and a green weed reef, ready to strike a fish, 

 and at the next there would be a troop of plump 

 pheasants feeding on a knoll. The inland side pre- 

 sents a range of rocky fir-clad terraces, with primroses 

 still lingering at their base ; just the spot in which a 

 professor of geology might choose to " spend a wedded 



* For his portrait and analysis of Scottish crack greyhounds and 

 coursing fields, see "Field and Fern," vol. " South." 



