THE AOBI CU LTU RAL JOURNAL. 



m 



SAMBO. 



By " HirpiAS." 



I NEED scarcely apologifie to the read- 

 ers of the Agricultural Journal for 

 the heading of this article. If, in Eng- 

 land, the march of intellect has elimin- 

 ated the dog as a necessary part of the 

 gunner's equipment; if, in the grand 

 battue, the bipes implumis, with a stick 

 in his hand, has taken the place of that 

 equally intelligent and far more elegant 

 quadruped, the Clumber Spaniel — if the 

 watch dog is no longer needed to jirotect 

 the homestead from assaults of lawless 

 man or savage beast — here in Africa we 

 have not yet arrived at that ])itch of civi- 

 lization that enables us to dispense with 

 the dog; and 1 may be pardoned for ex- 

 pressing a hope that that time may never 

 come. 



Though the hyena no longer utters 

 his nightly howl in Greyling Street, as 

 he did when 1 kept house there in 1853, 

 though jackals are no longer found on 

 Foxhill, nor are the pumpkins in the 

 Camp gardens devoured by porcupines — 

 yet the country farmer would soon find 

 himself at a loss if he missed the bay 

 of his faithful hound in the yard at sun- 

 rise, and no warning were given him of 

 the approach of strangers. 



The farmer's dog keeps vermin of all 

 sorts at a distance from sheep-fold and 

 poultry-yards, guards the grazing sheep, 

 and reclaims them when asiray; and has 

 his assured and necessary ])lace, though 

 not always recognized, in the inventory 

 of farm stock. If this apology is not 

 sufficient, I must let the article sj^eak 

 for itself. 



As my English home was near the 

 centre of my uncle's estate, which count- 

 ed ten thousand acres, the reader may 

 imagine that we were not too closely 

 pressed by neighbours. . It was a drive 

 of from two to three miles to the nearest 

 house, other than those of the curate, 

 my uncle's steward, or the tenant farmers 

 who lived in and about the village. Our 

 nearest neighbours were the Veans, of 



Canon Court. The name is, of course, 

 fictitious, as they were a large family, 

 and some of the grandsons may possibly 

 lia\ e sej'ved in this everlasting war, and 

 might object to see their name in print. 

 The father of the family was a short, 

 stout built man, who had passed 

 through Westminster (a rough 

 school in those days) not with- 

 out some reputation as a pugil- 

 ist; and having held a commission in 

 the Yeomanry, retained, among the com- 

 mon people, his title of Captain. He 

 was a forward, and what we used to term 

 a bruising rider to hounds, and was 

 known to many as the Elying Captain. 

 He had the sailor's trick of spinning 

 yarns, too; some of which his enemies 

 alleged to be beyond the allowed limits 

 of embroidery; and they emphasized this 

 opinion of eliding the tirst letter of th'^ 

 appellation, and giving it a rather oppro- 

 brious meaning. 



His wife, who, though her actual 

 height was, I believe, 5 feet 8 inches, 

 looked a giantess by the side of lier hus- 

 band, was known throughout their side 

 of the country as Long Charlotte. She 

 was the mother of several daughters, 

 handsome and dashing girls, who made 

 the house a pleasant place for a visit. 

 Vean's tem])er, which was not always un- 

 der very rigid control, gave rise to stories 

 told over the second glass of port, or at 

 the covert's side, not always without a 

 spice of exaggeration; one of these, for 

 the truth of which I can personally an- 

 swer, may be worth recording. 



A hunted fox had been followed from 

 Heythrop to Chadlington, and Vean 

 who knew the country well, was in a good 

 place, and meant to keep it; when, &s 

 he was making for a weak spot in a bull- 

 finch, a man in a worn and dirty pink, 

 on a boring horse, crossed him and took 

 the fence so closely in front as to throw 

 "Vivian" out of his stride, very nearly 



