THE OVERTOPPING HOUND 1 39 the huntsman would level him down to the body of his companions by a process known as trashing. There is no connection, etymological or otherwise, between the trashed and the trashy hound. When Iago associates the words, he does so in obedience to an instinct always strong, but specially powerful in regard to terms of venery. Embarrassed by the impatience of Roderigo, he compares the too eager lover to an overtopping hound; If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash Othello, ii. 1. 312. The use of the word 'trash' among terms of venery, both as a verb and as a substantive, is now clearly established (see the note on the word in Nares' Glossary, and the examples collected in Johnson's Dictionary, by Todd). It is used as a substantive by Gervase Markham in his Country Contentments. He mentions trashes, with couples, liams, collars, etc., among articles commonly kept in a huntsman's lodgings. Curiously enough the verb has not been found in books of sport, but there is some evidence of its use by hunters up to the beginning of the present century. (See the notes to Othello, ii. 1, in the Variorum of 1821.) But of the nature and use of the trash there can be no doubt. They are clearly shown in the following note to Beckford's Thoughts on Hunting (Letter X.); a book of the highest authority, the work of a scholar, a sportsman, a keen observer, and an entertaining writer. A hound that runs too fast for the rest ought not to be kept. Some huntsmen load them with heavy collars; some tie a long strap round their necks; a better way would be to part with them. Whether they go too slow or too fast, they ought equally to be drafted.' However the trash may have been applied, it clearly appears, from Beckford's words, to have consisted of a long strap, kept by the huntsman (according to Markham) with collars, liams, and other articles of the same kind. When the hound was running this long strap, dragged along the ground, handi. capped the overtopping hound. I have been so fortunate as to see an accurate representation of Prospero's trash in a painting in the possession of the Right Hon. Arthur Smith Barry, M.P., in which one of his ancestors-master of the Cheshire foxhounds about the middle of last century-is depicted hunting with his pack. One of the hounds has attached to his collar a long strap, which trails on the ground. This hound, Bluecap, the winner of a match mentioned in Daniel's Rural Sports, was considered worthy of a separate portrait, also in the possession of Mr. Smith Barry. He was thus an exceptionally fast hound, and would certainly have been trashed by Prospero or his brother by means of the long strap which Beckford mentions as in use about the time when this picture was painted. It is quite possible that this strap may have been used, not only to restrain a hound from overtopping, but, held in hand by the huntsman, to prevent a hound that was embossed' owing to overwork, from adding to his fatigue by running about at large. (See note at p. 78.) None knew better than Prospero that the best of hounds need trashing, if you would have your pack run together, and so he tells us that his usurping brother, Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, who to advance and who To trash for overtopping, new created The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed 'em, Tempest, i. 2. 79. Ben Jonson was not afraid to suggest the application of some such process to Shakespeare himself,' in whom he notes 'excellent phantasy, brave notions, and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped.' Shakespeare would have called it 'trashed for overtopping;' but the learned Jonson, borrowing words spoken by Augustus of Haterius, writes Sufflaminandus erat. And if poets, like hounds, must needs be levelled down lest one should overtop the rest of the cry, a trash of no ordinary dimensions would have been needed to bring Shakespeare to the level of even rare Ben himself. Let us therefore rejoice that Shakespeare was allowed to hunt the trail of his fancy unrestrained by trash-such, for example, as would have been supplied by the dramatic unities of time, place, and action. I have horse will follow where the game MASTER SHALLOW and his friends from their vantage ground in the park, like Theseus and Hippolyta on the mountain top, could with their ears 'mark the musical confusion Of hounds and echo in conjunction;' and with their eyes they might follow the hart until, ascending the hillside, he had reached the upper stretches of the wold. When it became apparent that the hounds were about to be laid on the trail of this deer, three members of the company, impelled by different motives, left the park and approached the hounds. Master Ferdinand Petre, though he despised hunting, affected the riding of the great horse, as did most of his school. He was now mounted upon a grey Flanders mare, well trained in the manage, and bought at a great price from Petre's neighbour, one Sir Smile. A modern critic, had the mare appeared by the covert side, would call her a cart-horse. But Ferdinand was proud of her shapes and dimensions, which he rather ostentatiously contrasted with those of the homebred hunting jades-uncomely curtals he would call them to the obvious discontent of the Gloucestershire Justices, and the no small amusement of Mids. N. Dr. iv. 1. 115. Petre, who never lost a chance of making sport at the expense of his cousin. "Come," said Petre, as his cousin Ferdinand was parading his prancing bean-fed steed before the admiring eyes of Ellen Silence, "if thou art a man, and thy grey mare be ought but a hollow pampered jade,' match thyself and her against one of these uncomely curtals, and take thy choice." Old Silence said nothing, but there was meaning in his grunt, and Ferdinand Petre, slowly, and with a bad grace, joined the party by the covert side. It was surely by a feeling akin to instinct that Will Squele, when the hart made for the hills, was impelled to quit the Justice's party, and to turn the head of his stout bay curtal towards his Cotswold home. But was it instinct, or filial affection, or some other motive power, that impelled the fair Anne, turning a deaf ear to all entreaties, and saying "I must needs follow my father," to canter down the hillside, cross the western valley, and join Will Squele in his homeward ride? Time, and the sequel of the chase, can alone make their motives clear. Suffice it to note here the fact that the party in the park was thus reduced to Justice Shallow, his god-daughter Ellen, Petre and his bride, with old Master Silence. There we may leave them for the present-for they will hear or see no more of the chase to-day-and return to Abraham Slender and the hounds. The early moments of a great moorland run differ widely from the quick find and eager rush by which, in modern times, a brilliant burst with fox-hounds is inaugurated. There is plenty of time and no lack of space. These metaphysical conditions being satisfactory, a quiet air of pleasurable anticipation pervades the assembly during the interval —sometimes a long one-between the unharbouring of the deer and the laying on of the pack. None of our Gloucestershire friends would have been guilty of the unsportsmanlike malpractice of pursuing the hart, instead of riding to the hounds; and accordingly they are collected in a group by the thicket near the spot where the deer broke covert. THE IRISH HOBBY 1 43 Here comes John Hunt with the hounds, old but wiry and hard bitten, 'furnished like a hunter,' 1 with sword by his side and twisted horn slung over his shoulder, mounted on a compact home-bred gelding, somewhat under fifteen handfuls' (as he would tell you) in height. Abraham Slender is close at hand. I need not here describe in detail his horse, for you shall in due time see his picture, drawn as 'when a painter would surpass the life In limning out a well-proportion'd steed.' 2 But I would ask you to note that William Silence has discarded the little ambling nag on which some days before he had ridden from London, for a great horse or horse of service of the High Almain breed, borrowed for the occasion from his friend Petre, by his management of which within the pale he had hoped to commend himself to the eyes of Mistress Anne, and like Henry the Fifth 'bound his horse for her favours.' Now the discarded ambler was of a breed which took kindly to this artificial pace, but could, if need be, gallop as well. It was known as the Irish hobby, a light but wiry horse, swift, pleasant to ride, and of great endurance. It had not the imposing presence of Petre's horse of service, nor had it been so perfectly broken to the manage. Hence Silence's choice, to which we owe much; for thus it came about that he lent his Irish hobby to Clement Perkes for the use of a visitor, who otherwise must needs follow on foot as best he could, inasmuch as with gentle persistence he had refused the kindly yeoman's offer of a stout galloway, the only hunting nag which the modest stable of the Hill could provide. When we have added William Visor of Woncot, the number of prickers is complete. He had hired a halfstarved jade in the village of Woncot, where Marian Hacket kept a plain ale-house, without welt or gard of any ivy-bush, and sold beer and cheese by pint and by pound to all that came, over her door being a legend, 'vilely painted, and in such great letters as they write, Here is good horse to hire.'3 Meanwhile, the collected cry were laid on the line of the The western valley re-echoed with loud shouts of 1 As You L. iii. 2. 258. 2 Ven. and Ad. 289. 3 Much Ado, i. 1. 267. hart. |