The Life of a Great Sportsman 



the " Top House " on her marriage with one of the then great 

 catches of North Lincolnshire, our father, the fascinating young 

 Squire Richardson, himself no mean sportsman. 



Thus, it will be seen that the village of Great Limber, with 

 its environs and its traditions, was a fine training ground in 

 the sporting direction, and no doubt was a great factor in leading 

 my brother Maunsell's mind, even as a child, and ultimately as 

 a man, to make sport in the best sense of the word the one 

 absorbing interest of his life. 



There is also another peculiarity of North Lincolnshire that 

 gives even hack-riding a particular pleasure. The ordinary 

 high-roads rejoice in broad grassy sides, where two or three 

 riders can canter along abreast, quite secure from any pitfalls 

 for miles, and without any necessity for the "'ammer, 'ammer, 

 'ammer on the 'ard 'igh road." They can ride from village to 

 town, or from town to village, ad lib. Roads may have grassy 

 sides in other counties, but so far as the present writer has 

 seen, none comparable, either in size or in the springy quality 

 of the turf, to those of North Lincolnshire. 



No doubt the roads were mapped out on a generous scale 

 by those then in power long centuries ago, for the Romans are 

 undoubtedly responsible for many of the roads in North 

 Lincolnshire. Land grabbers were not ; railways had not 

 ploughed their iron tracks through the country ; even stage 

 coaches were non-existent, the only mode of locomotion being 

 the trusty Roadster and the Pack-horse. 



My brother Maunsell's childhood was by no means entirely 

 taken up by the one sport, of riding or hunting. He loved, as 

 in fact he did all his life long, every kind of honest sport for 

 sport's sake, excelling from childhood in every game to which 

 he put his hand. 



In fact, for Maunsell to become one of the greatest 



30 



