1807. THE EPWELL HUNT. 27 



Now creeping thro" gaps, now trailing down lanes. 

 When noticed he leaps, and when not, slvly cranes. 

 Now concealing a stumble, now hiding a trip, 

 Like a horsedealer's man paid to show off a rip ; 

 In short, if allow'd I may be the expression, 

 What we deem a pleasure, he made a profession. 



Little GriLLiBR.VND,* too, now began to make plav, 

 Tho' he rode mighty shy the first part of the day ; 

 And averr'd, as if fibbing, I ween, was no sinning, 

 That his horse, to go pleasant, was just then beginning ; 

 And if stumbling, and rolling, wide op'ning his throat, 

 And convulsively sobbing, can pleasure denote ; 

 Or, if joy be attended with symptoms like these, 

 Master Gillibrand certainlv rode at his ease ! 



Nor let us, my friends, in this place overlook 

 The fate of poor Whyniate. who fell in a brook. 

 And who, had it not V)een for that woful disaster. 

 Must have se^n all the sport, had he gone even faster 

 A lesson to sportsmen — take warning from hence — 

 How much safer to ride than turn over a fence ; 

 Tor the Chesnut, indignant at being led over. 

 Threw him flat on his back — not exactly in clover ; 

 Nay, to tread on his master the rascal made bold. 

 And gave him a bath most bewitchingly cold ; 

 And, what's worse, after playing this dev'lish rig, 

 Of tb3 water he took such a terrible swig, 

 That, tho' Reginald mounted as soon as releas'd. 

 He could never get up till the sport had all ceas'd. 



On Michaelmas mounted, somewhat in the rear. 

 Sailing steady along see Allesley's great Peer;t 

 Now, his lordship asserts, and 'tis true without doubt. 

 That a nasty stone wall, with a ditch, threw him out ; 

 Besides, Goulburn, his crony, declares it's the case, 

 And avows that he stopp'd at the very same place. 

 JacJc Ketch, too, with very uncommon forbearance, 

 At the close of this run never made his appearance ; 



* Mr. Gillibrand, a good sportsman, who frequently joined this Hunt during tho 

 season. 



t Lord Cloumell, well known as an ardent sportsman, who frequently rode twenty 

 miles to cover in the morning, before the hounds threw off. 



