Days with Sir Roger De CoverleySteele, Richard, Sir
General
Days with Sir Roger De Coverley
Steele, Richard, Sir
English essays
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, and put them upon the scent. As they
were going off, I heard one of the country-fellows muttering to his
companion, that 'twas a wonder they had not lost all their sport, for
want of the silent gentleman's crying STOLE AWAY.
This, with my aversion to leaping hedges, made me withdraw to a rising
ground, from whence I could have the pleasure of the whole chase,
without the fatigue of keeping in with the hounds.
The hare immediately threw them above a mile behind her; but I was
pleased to find, that instead of running straight forwards, or, in
hunter's language, FLYING THE COUNTRY, as I was afraid she might have
done, she wheel'd about, and described a sort of circle round the hill
where I had taken my station, in such manner as gave me a very distinct
view of the sport. I could see her first pass by, and the dogs some time
afterwards unravelling the whole track she had made, and following her
thro' all her doubles. I was at the same time delighted in observing
that deference which the rest of the pack paid to each particular hound,
according to the character he had acquired amongst them: If they were
at a fault, and an old hound of reputation opened but once, he was
immediately followed by the whole cry; while a raw dog, or one who was
a noted LIAR might have yelped his heart out, without being taken notice
of.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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