Strange though it may sound, it is nevertheless true that "man is a beast of prey"; and the passion for sport is perhaps one of the strongest of all those that rage in the human breast. It is found alike in prince and peasant, in white men and red; so my hero is but a variety of a very common species of humanity, and one which is pretty generally distributed throughout the wide, wide world. Their habits, of course, vary with their haunts; but go where you will, the principal points of their character will always be found the same. They are ever distinguished by an enthusiastic love of sport, by the strictest honesty, unwavering fidelity, and bravery, combined with wonderful powers of endurance. Their bad qualities, too, are almost identical; they are mostly careless of the future, drunken, and revengeful. In the primeval forests of the New World, the sharp crack of the back-woodsman's rifle is the only sound which disturbs Nature's repose. Poor Ruxton's graphic pen has faithfully described the quaint customs and language of the wild trappers of the Rocky Mountains; they appear too, as hardy chamoishunters in Central Europe, amid the mountains of Bavaria, and the snow-clad peaks of the Tyrol, and "La belle France" boasts of her chasseurs; though the difference between them and the beaver trappers of North America is so great that they can scarcely be classed as members of the same family. But let us look nearer home. Perhaps in England itself society has become too artificial, and civilization has made too rapid strides, to favour their development; still they flourish in the more remote and retired districts-amid the coombs of Devon, the rugged peaks of Cumberland and Westmoreland, and the dreary fens of Lincolnshire. But in the sister-kingdoms they form quite a national feature; the pleasant pages of Scrope, St. John, and even the great Sir Walter himself, abound in vivid descriptions of the lights and shades of their character; and the stalwart forms of Highland "gillies" add life and reality to many of the most charming productions of Landseer's pencil. Of late years the Encumbered Estates Bill, and the consequent inroad of "proud Saxons," has diminished their numbers in Ireland; but many yet remain, the faithful and devoted henchmen of their old masters. In Wales they are rapidly becoming extinct; and this, I trust, will be taken as a sufficient reason for bringing William before the public: but having done I must now try and describe his personal appearance.

80,

F

He is a tall, gaunt man, on the downward side of sixty, but still straight and upright as a young sapling-his cheeks are hollow, and his hair is becoming grizzled; but his small grey eyes have lost none of their lustre, and are as quick and piercing as ever. He is usually dressed in an old velveteen shooting-jacket, with corduroy continuations and tight-fitting leather gaiters. In spring and summer he is never seen without a large fishing-rod, and a cast of trout and salmon flies decorate his low-crowned felt hat. In winter he is usually accompanied by a couple of rough-looking terriers; and the sharp visage of a pet ferret may be seen peeping out of one of his capacious pockets. When I first became acquainted with him, he was huntsman, gamekeeper, and general factotum to a well-known sportsman in my neighbourhood; and as the whole of this hunting establishment was very remarkable, and different from any other that has ever come under my notice, and as William is its last surviving relic, I shall make a short digression, and give a brief description of its leading features. The owner was a thorough sportsman and gentleman. Kind and charitable, he was beloved by his poorer neighbours; and his strict integrity and legal knowledge caused him to be looked upon as a model magistrate. His pack consisted of from eight to ten couple of hounds; they were mostly grey-pies, with long drooping ears, coarse sterns, and square, heavy muzzles. Their powers of hunting I have never seen equalled, and their deep musical notes would have pleased even the fastidious ear of Sir Roger de Coverley. They were nominally harriers, but hunted with equal success both foxes and otters; yet they never changed in chase, but always remained staunch to the particular game they were hunting. The young hounds were always entered to vermin during the summer months-a practice highly recommended by Beckford, and one which certainly has a great effect in teaching hounds to stoop; hare-hunting, however, was their principal occupation, and not even the far-famed Brookside could excel them at this sport. They were never kept in kennel, but at the neighbouring farm-houses, and collected on the evening before they were wanted. William asserts most positively that the old hounds knew the hunting days perfectly well, and never failed to appear at suppertime on the previous evening.

In these "fast" days, when riding and pace is the first consideration to a large proportion of hunting men, and the working of hounds and the nice points of hunting are left uncared for and unnoticed, any account of hare-hunting, and of the way this pack used to work, will, I fear, be thought tedious and uninteresting; but I cannot help fancying that there must be some among my readers who, although, like myself, devoted admirers of the "noblest science," can still listen with pleasure to the harrier's mellow note, and mark with delight his clever casts. I do not mean to say that hare-hunting can be compared to fox-hunting, much less ever be considered superior

* I need scarcely recall the reader's recollection to Sir Roger's hunting establishment, and his peculiar taste. "He is so nice in this particular, that a gentleman having made him a present of a very fine hound the other day, the Knight returned it by the servant with a great many expressions of civility; but desired him to tell his master that the dog he had sent was a most excellent Bass, but at present he only wanted a COUNTER-TENOR."-Spectator, No. 115.

to it; but in wild, rough countries the former is at least not a bad substitute for the latter; and "poor is the triumph o'er the timid hare" is altogether inapplicable to small black-backed mountaineers, who run as straight as arrows, and afford a burst of thirty minutes, which would compare very favourably with the performance of a plethoric, shortrunning woodland fox. The district my favourites hunted over consisted chiefly of a wild, broken country; plovers, snipes, and wildfowl occupying the peaty lowlands-hares, and occasionally a stray pack of grouse, being tenants of the heather-clad uplands. It well repaid a sportsman to go and meet the hounds on a cloudy day in January, just after a thaw had set in, and a gentle south-west wind, driving the heavy masses of fog from the mountain-tops, betokened a burning scent. On these occasions William appeared in his glory. His costume consisted of a long-skirted pea-green coat, scarlet waistcoat, white cords, and bright yellow gaiters. He usually rode an iron-grey, which would lead over any sort of cramped place; William preferring this mode of progression to the more exciting, but less safe one, of riding over the fences: in fact, once the hounds found he rarely interfered with them, and his strong points as a huntsman were his thorough knowledge of the haunts of game, and his quick eye at a "Soho." It was quite marvellous to see the wonderful extent of cover these few couples of hounds could draw; one wave of the hand scattered them over the hill sides, and each worked independently of the other; but as soon as a hound opened, the rest packed to him in an instant. In running, as the saying is, "a sheet would cover them;" and however cold or catching the scent, they rarely missed their hare; and having killed, they never attempted to eat, or even tear the game, but lay down round it, like well-broken pointers "down charging" to shot. But "tempora mutantur:" their beloved master is now no more, and his darling "grey pies" are scattered among strangers; still the deep note and broad chest of some of the U. H. C. show that the breed, though crossed and stained, is not wholly extinct.

I fear I have ridden my hunting hobby too long; but hunting of all sorts is dearly loved by Taffies, and on behalf of my countrymen I shall take this opportunity of vindicating their characters from a recent charge brought against them by a clever writer in these pages. He says, "Welshmen have no idea of fostering foxes for the sake of sport, nor would that principle be readily instilled into them." He is, I assure him, mistaken: vulpicides are almost unknown, and, when discovered, looked upon with the horror the atrocity of the crime demands; and the fact of there being five packs of foxhounds in three small counties is scarcely consistent with the idea" that foxes are not encouraged."

I shall now take a glance at William as a disciple of Izaac Walton, and en passant say a few words respecting fly-fishing. It has always held a very high place in the list of field sports, and has numbered many great men among its votaries. Nor is this to be wondered at; for what is more enjoyable than to stroll along the rugged banks of a brawling mountain-stream, and by a dexterous cast into one of its foaming eddies, lure a golden-sided bright-spotted monster from his retreat, and lay him gasping upon the smooth pebbles? Of the mysteries of the highest branch of the art I dare not speak: they have been treated of by the learned author of Salmonia, the easy-flowing mirthful pen of the warm-hearted Christopher North, and in the practical pages

of Ephemera; indeed, the Universities themselves have not deemed the subject beneath their notice, and Cambridge for a time laying aside the consideration of conic sections, and the differential calculus, has given to the world her opinions upon fly-fishing, and certainly boasts of a Regius Professor of the "gentle art," and the lively pen of the "Oxonian in Norway" shows that the study of Ethics and Flyfishing are not altogether incompatible. William holds the proud position of being the best fisherman on the Teify-no insignificant boast, where every urchin throws a fly. Like a true professor of the art, he ties his own flies; and though his "cock-a-bonddus," "smoky-blues," and "March browns," may excite a sneer in the neighbourhood of Temple Bar, yet I would rather, at least for Welsh fishing, have a couple of dozen of this rough-and-ready sort than the choicest assortment Farlow's shop can boast of. William's great height and incessant practice enable him to throw a beautifully straight line; and however unfavourable the day, be it a bright March day, with a hot sun, a cutting east wind, and the water very low, and as clear as crystal, he never fails in taking a good dish of fish. Often have I fished for miles down a stream, without scarcely rising a fish, and have watched his gaunt form stalking along, some twenty yards behind, and getting his flies into the most cramped overgrown places, and pulling out trout where my most delicate casts had failed to move a fish. Again when fortune smiles, and we return home with well-filled baskets, he is ever the "laudator temporis acti," and relates the history of some mythical day, when with the aid of a bit of string, a casting line, and hazel switch, he killed sixteen dozen of trout; or gives a graphic description of a terrific struggle between him and some gigantic salmon, which would have put to the blush any fish that ever swam in a Norwegian fiord. He is also very great as a shooting attendant, and is intimately acquainted with every covey in his neighbourhood; and should the "powder be crooked," as will sometimes occur, his supply of apologies is inexhaustible. No bird is ever flushed without being hit; and he invariably produces a handful of feathers, of which he carries a large supply in his pocket, in proof of the veracity of his assertion. In fact, his excuses for bad shooting are as ingenious as those of the Irishman who, having attended and found excuses for a bungler who had missed every shot, at last discovered a covey feeding upon a stubble; and upon a volley having been poured in upon the unfortunate birds whilst on the ground, without any fatal results, naïvely observed, "Faith, yer honnor, you made 'em lave that." When game is scarce, he favours one with an account of the wonderful exploits of his late master, and dwells with peculiar satisfaction upon a visit he once made to Scotland; and the cheapness of whiskey in the Land 'o Cakes is an everlasting source of admiration to him,

My readers will by this time have had enough of William and the scenes among which he moves; for, as I have already said, he is but an individual example of a large class of men, and one which I think is not without use in its generation, inasmuch as it assists in preserving and keeping alive that manly spirit and love of adventure, which are the very life and soul of field sports, and without which a nation is too apt to fall into luxury, effeminacy, and decay.

Dec. 11, 1857.

* Cambridge Essays, 1857.

T. S. H.