1795J WILL BARROW. 19 



" only servaut he ever had, or knew, fit to trust with his horses' mouths, 

 hai-ing so gentle and good a hand on his bridle." This was true to the 

 letter ; there could not l)c a finer horseman over a country than Barrow, nor 

 one with a finer liaud ; yet, strange to say, he rode almost all his horses in 

 martingales, which, from their length, the rings reaching to the jaw — he 

 said " merely steadied their heads." And he had another ijeculiarity in the 

 saddle. Wheu trotting along the road with his hounds, he always held his 

 whip and reins in his right hand, whilst the left arm hung dangling by his 

 side, as though there was no life in it ; and which peculiarity was honoured 

 with imitation l)y a conceited, but hard-riding, farmer in the hunt. 



I read these lines on poor Barrow's tombstone in the Suudorne parish 

 <;hurchyard : 



Of this world's pleasure I have had my share ; 



For few the sorrows I was doomed to bear ; 



How oft I have enjoyed the noble chase 



Of hounds and foxes, each striving for the race ! 



But the knell of death calls me away ; 



So, sportsmen, farewell ! I must obey. 



I cannot say much for the poetry, and still less for the sense of this 

 epitaph, and I wonder a better had not been substituted by some one. We do 

 not enjoy " the chase of hoimds," but of foxes with hounds. Again, did the 

 fates decree, that Will Barrow should die from a fall, he should have died in 

 the service of foxhounds, with which, for so many years, he lived so well, and, 

 like the old fellow-servant of his younger days — the noted Will Moody — the 

 brush of their last fox should have waved amongst his funeral plumes. 



For could we clioose the time, and choose aright, 

 'Tis best to die, our honour at its height. 



To return to Mr. Corbet. He appeared in my eyes to possess all the 

 qualities requisite to make a man popular in the character of a master of 

 foxhounds. lu the first place, he was, in his general demeanour, a fine 

 specimen of the thorough English gentleman, which goes a great way, under 

 any circumstaufv's, towards ci-eatiug respect and esteem; and when joined 

 with a frank and courteous manner, the result is no longer doubtful. Nor 

 was it with the gentlemen sportsmen in his county alone that Mr. Corbet 

 was in the highest esteem. The kind word, the nod of recognition at the 

 cover's side, were never withheld by him to the yeomen and farmers who 

 attended his hounds in that sporting county ; and with that class of persons 

 he stood — if I may be allowed the expression — on the very pinnacle of esteem. 

 His name and fame Avill not be forgotten in Warwickshire for at least another 

 generation to come. 



When sjieaking of Mr. Corbet as a sportsman, I have always been rather 

 at a loss for a true estimation of him in that character. In breeding 

 hounds he had great advantages. His own extensive estates in one of the 

 most sporting counties in Great Britain, together with those of his 

 neighbours, afforded him the best of walks for his puppies, and he bred 

 to a great extent. Still, I have myself heard him admit that in proportion 

 to relative numbers, he could not succeed so well as his neighbour 

 (afterwards his son-in-law). Sir Richard Puleston, succeeded. He gave 

 him credit for bringing into the field a sort of hound fit for any country, 

 and of a peculiarly marked character, which I always considered Sir 

 Richard's sort to have been. They were closer in their form, but with 



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