The Life of a Great Sportsman 



I did not quite recognize to whom I had had the pleasure of 

 conversing, but after he had shown me the wily Master 

 Reynard crossing a ride in the woods as he had promised, and 

 had left me, and my old groom "Tommy" Rickalls had joined 

 me again, the latter told me with bated breath that the gentle- 

 man I had been speaking to was none other than the Earl of 

 Yarborough himself. To the best of my recollection this was 

 the last time the covertside, or hounds, ever saw their kindly 

 owner, for although the Earl lived some years longer he was 

 never able to appear in the hunting field again. 



Thus, the fact that the Brocklesby M.F.H. had not taken 

 an active place in the hunting field for some years, makes it 

 readily understood with what joy the whole countryside 

 welcomed the news that Lord Worsley, the heir to the title 

 and estates, and who all knew must, in the course of nature, 

 soon assume the reins of power, and his eighteen-year-old wife, 

 daughter of the second Earl of Listowel, were to spend the 

 winter of 1859-60 at Brocklesby. That joy was not lessened 

 when it came out that not only was she a very fine horsewoman, 

 but a true Diana of the chase. Truly, their coming worked a 

 never-to-be-forgotten change in North Lincolnshire. 



The year was a remarkable one also in other ways. The 

 Great Comet of 1859, which many had foretold was to be the 

 end of the world, had appeared. When the two great planets 

 appeared in its lustrous tail, it was a most awe-inspiring sight. 

 I remember well gazing at it with wonderment not unmixed 

 with fear, and certainly no comet I have ever seen has impressed 

 me in the same manner. 



At that time I was at a boarding school at Kensington, 

 Maunsell and my eldest brother being at Elstree, a preparatory 

 school for Harrow, for which well-known place of learning and 

 sport they were both destined. It was in a letter to my 



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