tone-horse that unhappily staked himself several
years since, and was buried with great solemnity in the orchard.

Sir Roger, being at present too old for fox-hunting, to keep himself in
action, has disposed of his beagles and got a pack of STOP-HOUNDS. What
these want in speed, he endeavours to make amends for by the deepness
of their mouths and the variety of their notes, which are suited in such
manner to each other, that the whole cry makes up a complete concert.
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 indeed a most excellent
BASS, but that at present he only wanted a COUNTER-TENOR. Could I
believe my friend had ever read Shakespeare, I should certainly conclude
he had taken the hint from Theseus in the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flu'd so sanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew.
Crook-knee'd and dew-lap'd like Thessalian bulls,
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouths like bells,
Each under each: A cry more tuneable
Was never holla'd to, nor chear'd with horn.

Sir Roger is so keen at this sport, that he has been out almost every
day since I came down; and upon the chaplain's offering to lend me
his easy pad, I was prevailed on yesterday morning to make one of
the company. I was extremely pleased, as we rid along, to observe the
general benevolence of all the neighbourhood towards my friend. The
farmers' sons thought themselves happy if they could open a gate for the
good old Knight as he passed by; which he generally requited with a nod
or a smile, and a kind of enquiry after their fathers and uncles.

After we had rid about a mile from home, we came upon a large heath, and
the sportsmen began to beat. 'They had done so for some time, when, as I
was at a little distance from the rest of the company, I saw a hare pop
out from a small furze-brake almost under my horse's feet. I marked the
way she took, which I endeavoured to make the company sensible of by
extending my arms; but to no purpose, till Sir Roger, who knows that
none of my extraordinary motions are insignificant, rode up to me,
and asked me if PUSS was gone that way? Upon my answering yes, he
immediately called in the dogs,