Hunting Anecdotes.

Lake County Press, Issue 906, 12 April 1900, Page 7

Hunting Anecdotes.

The few yarns I give here may be old, but. they are so good that they will always bear repeating. One of the Dukes of Grafton when hunting was thrown into a ditch ; at: the same time a young curate, calling out, " Lie still, my lord," leapt over him, and pursued his sport. Such an apparent want, of feeling, we may presume, was properly resented. Xo .such thing. On being helped out by his attendant, his Grace said "Thai man shall have the first good living that falls to my disposal. Had he stopped to have taken care of me I never would have given him anything." being delighted with an ardour similar to his own. or with a spirit that would not stoop to flatter. It is recorded that one of the sons of Gosden, whose father was celebrated as the bold rider of Hatchet, was out upon his favourite pony with the King's staghounds ; he came to a part where Ihe Duke of C was refusing a leap, when the bolder son of Ximrod, without thinking of the importance and rank of the person tie was addressing, exclaimed, "Stand away, and let me take it ! A pretty sort of a Duke you are 1" Quite a pathetic little story is told of one Saunderson. a celebrated professor of mathematics at Cambridge University in his day. who, although entirely destitute of sight, continued to hunt until a very advanced stage of life. His horse was accustomed to follow that of his servant, and the satisfaction of the professor was extreme when he heard the cry of hounds or the huntsman, and which he used to express witii all the eagerness of those who, possessing their eyesight, could consequently be more gratified by the incidents of the chase. And now a word for the fox. Dr. Goldsmith relates a remarkable incident of the parental affection of this animal. which, he says, occurred near Chelmsford. A she-fox that had but one cub was unkennelled by a gentleman's hounds, and hotly pursued. The poor animal, .braving every danger rather than leave her cub behind to be worried by the dogs, took it up in her mouth, and ran witii it in this manner for several miles. At last, taking her way through a farmer's yard, she was assaulted by a mastiff, and at length obliged to drop her cub ; this was taken up by the farmer. It is pleasing to add Unit the affectionate creature escaped the pursuit, and got off in safety. 1 presume such instances are not particularly rare ; but this is the first instance that has come to my knowledge.