778 
crosses, best answer the midnight 
purposes of the poacher in driving 
hares into the wire or net. Grey- 
hounds bred from this cross have, 
therefore, some tendency fo run by 
the nose, which, if not immediately 
checked by the master, they will 
continue for miles, and become’ very 
destruétive to the game in the neigh- 
bourhood where they are kept, if 
not under confinement or restraint. 
Having necessarily adverted to the 
father of modern coursing, some 
distinguishing traits of his charaéter 
(replete with anecdote) can prove 
no deviation from the descriptive 
variety previously promised in the 
course of this work. No man ever 
sacrificed so much time, or so much 
property to praétical or speculative 
sporting as the late earl of Orford ; 
whose eccentricities are too firmly 
indented upon ‘‘ the tablet of me- 
mory,” ever to be obliterated from 
the diversified rays of retrospection. 
Incessantly engaged in the pursuit of 
sport and new inventions, he intro- 
duced more whimsicalities, more ex- 
perimental genius, and enthusiastic 
zeal, than any man ever did before 
him, or, most probably, any other 
man may ever attempt to do again. 
Amongst his experiments of fancy 
was a determination to drive four 
red deer (stags) in a pheton, in- 
stead of horses, and these he had 
reduced to perfect discipline for his . 
excursions and short journies upon 
the road ; but, unfortunately, as he 
was one day driving to Newmarket, 
their ears were accidentally saluted 
with the cry ofa pack of hounds, who 
soon after crossing the road in the 
rear, immediately caught scent of the 
*¢ four in hand,”? and commenced a 
new kind of chace with *‘ breast high”’ 
alacrity. The novelty of this scene 
was rich beyond description ; in vain 
ANNUAL REGISTER, ‘1803. 
did his lordship exert all his chari- 
oteering skill—in vain did his well- 
trained grooms energetically endea- 
vour to ride before them; reins, 
trammels, and the weight of the 
carriage were of no effect ; off they 
went, with the celerity of a whirl- 
wind, and this modern Pheton, in 
the midst of his eleétrical vibrations 
of fear, bid fair to experience the 
fate of his name-sake. Luckily, 
however, his lordship had been ac- 
customed to drive this Hudibrastic 
set of ‘¢ fiery-eyed” steeds to the 
Ram Inn, at Newmarket, which was 
most happily at hand, and to this 
his lordship’s fervent prayers and 
ejaculations had been ardently di- 
recied ; into the yard they suddenly 
bounded, to the dismay of ostlers 
and stable-boys, who seemed to have 
lost every faculty upon the occasion. 
Here they were luckily overpowered, 
and the stags, the pheton, and his 
lordship, were all instantaneously 
huddled together ina large barn just 
as the hounds appeared in full cry 
at the gate. 
This singular circumstance, al- 
though most luckily attended with 
no accident, effectually cured his 
lordship’s passion of deer-driving 5 
but his invincible zeal for coursing, 
and his widiminished rage for its 
improvement, remained with him to 
the last. No day was too long, or 
any weather too severe for him; 
those who have ever seen him, can 
never forget the extreme laughable 
singularity of his appearance. Mount- 
ed on a stump of a pye-balled po- 
ney (as uniformly broad as he was 
long) in a full suit of black, without 
either great coat or gloves; his 
hands and face crimsoned with cold, 
and ina fierce cocked hat, facing every 
wind that blew; and while his game- 
keepers were shrinking from- the 
sand. 
