The Life of a Great Sportsman 



two nights my mother sat up nursing it, till in its death 

 struggles it bit her in each hand. Then the horrible idea was 

 mooted, was the unfortunate kitten mad ? At that time the 

 wife of the huntsman of the Brocklesby hounds, who lived at 

 the Kennels, was known to possess a certain antidote against 

 madness — a potion said to be infallible. So my mother went 

 off to interview Mrs. Smith, and took me with her. To this 

 day I can see the horrible, thick, red-brown concoction, which 

 my poor mother drank without turning a hair, quite a fair-sized 

 basin full. I remember it the more distinctly, as it reminded 

 me so much of the Gregory mixture we unfortunates often had 

 to take, only it seemed still nastier, and much thicker. At any 

 rate, whatever its virtues, it could have done no harm, for our 

 mother luckily felt no ill-effects, either from the bite of the 

 poor little kitten, or from the extraordinary medicine she had 

 imbibed ! 



We used also to question "Tommy" Rickalls, the faithful 

 old servant, and from him we extracted a good deal of in- 

 formation as to the "horsey" side of my father's character. 

 We learned that although he could never be called a thrusting 

 rider with hounds, he was a keen upholder of the sport, and 

 no doubt Maunsell learned thus early that the joy of hunting 

 does not consist entirely in tearing over fences, cutting some 

 one else out, or over-riding hounds, and such like atrocities, 

 for I never knew him guilty of such deeds, nor has any one else 

 that I ever heard of, and for this good trait in his character he 

 had to thank his early grounding in hunting lore, inherited from 

 his father, and filtered through faithful old "Tommy" Rickalls. 

 Now " Tommy " also had his failing — his only one, I verily 

 believe, for a better all-round man with horses has never existed. 



My mother and grandmother used to tell the story 



with great gusto, as showing that Mr. Richardson, although 



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