Mrs. Knox -Illustration by E. Somerville“‘He’s sleeping at Tory Lodge,’ said Mrs. Knox. ‘He’s cubbing at Drumvoortneen, and he has to start early. He tried to torment me into allowing him to keep the hounds in the yard here this season, but I had the pleasure of telling him that old as I might be, I still retained possession of my hearing, my sense of smell, and, to a certain extent, of my wits.’
‘I should have thought,’ I said discreetly, ‘that Tory Lodge was more in the middle of his country.’
‘Undoubtedly,’ replied Flurry’s grandmother; ‘but it is not in the middle of my straw, my meal, my buttermilk, my firewood, and anything else of mine that can be pilfered for the uses of a kennel!’ She concluded with a chuckle that might have been uttered by a scald-crow.” -Excerpt from “The Finger of Mrs. Knox”
Foxhunting Life is pleased to bring you downloads of short stories by some of our favorite sporting authors. These works are in the public domain and may be downloaded by you, enjoyed, copied, and shared as you see fit.
Many readers will have already enjoyed Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. and Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Somerville and Ross—perhaps the authors’ best-known works. The characters in Mr. Knox’s Country will be recognized as the same from those two books: the narrator, English-born Major Yeats, Resident Magistrate (R.M.), sent by the English government to settle disputes in an Ireland still under British domination; his wife, Phillipa; the irreverent Flurry Knox, Master of Foxhounds; Mrs. Knox, the latter’s imperious grandmother, and all the other fabulous characters created by the wit of the authors—Irish cousins—who at the time of their writings had to hide the fact that they were women, since ladies did not engage in commerce!
Posted March 15, 2012