THE CALPE HUNT.

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and talking a quantity of Spanish, we visited the church, which is like all Catholic churches, and then returned to the "fonda," (inn,) where we called for a bottle of wine and some glasses; found the wine very good, but rather weak. After paying due respect to some of a better description, we mounted our horses, and galloped across the country to Gibraltar, where we arrived with unbroken necks; and next morning turned out with the jack boots and red coat, to meet the hounds, which threw off at the "Pine Wood," about eight miles distant.*

I

* At this period, the "Calpe Hunt" shewed a very good muster of dogs, and we generally could boast of a pretty numerous field, who all turned out in "pink,” as if at Melton Mowbray. And though the horses would not there have passed muster, still they were very good of their size and kind, and admirably adapted for the scrambling sort of work of galloping along and down the rocky faces of the steep sierras, which they were required to perform. The fifty-second regiment supplied us with the master of hounds, huntsman, and whip. Major B occupied the important post of the former, whilst V- and S-performed the latter parts, all to the universal satisfaction of the members of the hunt.

We threw off twice a-week, our principal meets being the First and Second Ventas, the Pine Wood, the Malaga Hills, and the Duke of Kent's Farm, situated on the verge of the Cork wood, whose old trees often repeated

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EXPOSED SITUATION.

admire much the scenery of Andalusia, particularly the fine cork-wood forests, and the hills covered with the wild lavender. We had very little sport, and there were only three tumbles in the field, which consisted of about twenty red-coats.

We are exposed, on this confounded Europa Point, to every wind that blows from the North Pole to Cape Horn, and it is to-day howling in its utmost fury round our solitary mansion, which is placed on a barren rock, without a shrub to protect us from the blast.

the echoes of "our sweetest music," making the welkin ring as we pursued our sport through its romantic and shady glades. Foxes were numerous,―too much so; and, although we sometimes had a smart run, I must confess that we seldom killed; a brush being quite a 66 rara avis" amongst us. This was owing to the quantity of earths, and number of foxes on foot at the same time-joined, perhaps, to the few good scenting-days we were favoured with.

THE CALPE HOUNDS.

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CHAPTER VII.

A day with the Calpe hounds-A good resolution broken through-The Colonel's Horse-Making up Duties-Landport Guard-Visit to San Roque -Inhabitants of San Roque and Gibraltar-The Prison-The Wolf.

December 3rd, 1837.

We have persuaded the colonel to subscribe to the hounds, and as he was anxious to see them throw off, I offered to accompany him, though still feeling rather weak from a recent illness, which confined me to my room for ten days; but intended to have returned as soon as they commenced running. We were rather late at starting, and obliged to push along smartly, when the old gentleman's horse beginning to cut sundry capers which did not please him,

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DRAWING FOR A FOX.

we exchanged nags, and what with the jack boots, red coat, and the colonel's warlike bearskin holsters, I must have cut rather a curious figure.

Shortly afterwards, we fell in with the hounds, and found a fox in some gardens, near the First Venta. There was a large field out, probably forty; amongst them were a number of mids, who were galloping about in every direction, so that poor reynard was regularly mobbed. He never got out of the gardens, where he was killed, and the colonel, much to his satisfaction, was in at the death. I offered now to give him back his own horse, but he said he had rather I rode him, which I agreed to do on condition that he would run all risks, being fully determined to take the jumping out of him, the sight of the hounds having completely dispelled my good resolution of merely seeing them throw off. The colonel's blood was also up, and he likewise determined to see the end of the fun.

Away we went, drawing for a fox until we reached the Cork wood, ten or twelve

THE COLONEL'S HORSE.

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miles from Gibraltar. Here we soon found, and went off at a killing pace over ravines, rocks, and hills, as hard as we could lay legs to the ground; so that, at the end of a quarter of an hour, on coming to a check, there were not more than eight or ten of the party in sight, amongst whom was not the colonel. By dint of the liberal use of my own sharp spurs, I had managed to keep up with his horse; but the beast was so fat that when we pulled up I thought he would have dropped under me, and as he appeared to have been sufficiently gruelled (to use a sporting phrase), and as I felt rather done myself, I turned his head homeward, and quietly jogged back, in company with M one of our lieutenants.

On meeting the colonel that evening at mess, I said to him,-" Well, sir, what became of you during the run? I quite lost sight of you in the Cork wood!"

"By Heavens," replied he, "I would have been well up, but my horse ran me against a tree, which knocked off my hat, and by the time I had picked it up, you were all gone!"