1833] EUN FROM ITCHINGTON HEATH. Ill 



own line of country, liis general fate was to be beaten. Speaking of him as 

 a horseman, he was, however, decidedly a good one. 



Thei-e was a very heavy man in Warwickshire some years since, who rode 

 well to hounds. I think he coiild not be under 20st. I allude to Mr. H. 

 Roberts, who resided at Stratford-on-Avon, and was for many years a 

 constant attendant on the Warwickshire hounds. 



Mr. Vaughton, who resides near Coventry, is a very good man of his 

 weight, about 18st., and a thrusting rider. 



Mr. J. Venour was one of the best men over Warwickshire in the early 

 part of Mr. Corljct's hunting it. He particularly distinguished himself on a 

 little horse called Hero, which I sold him when in my teens. 



Mr. Burton, a tanner, of Nimeaton, on a small animal only 14J hands 

 high, called Jack, was a match for most men. Tom Smith, when hunting in 

 Leicestershire, dashed at a high timber fence, over which he thought it 

 was not possible anyone else could follow him. The huntsman's horse knocked 

 down the top bar, when Mr. Burton easily jumped over, and, in the next 

 field, was still close at his heels. 



Ben Hollow ay, an Oxfordshire man. was a good horseman, and well 

 known in Warwickshire. I have now known him upwards of thirty years, 

 and when I saw him last he was in his old place, "close to their heels," as 

 Mat Wilkinson says. 



Decidedly the best man Warwickshire ever saw, next to Mr. R. Canning, 

 was Mr. H. Wyatt, a native of that sporting county, 6ft. Sin. high, and 

 weighing 15st. — Mr. Canning beat him hj an inch — who was chiefly con- 

 spicuous in the period of Lord Middleton and Mr. Shirley hunting the 

 counti'v, although he commenced in Mr. Corbet's time. A more daring 

 rider than Mr. Wyatt there not only could not be, but need not be, for if it 

 were in the powers of his horse to carry him to hounds, thei'e was nothing 

 wanting on his pai't, and it is due to him to say that a more gallant horse- 

 man England never saw. I have seen him in all situations with hounds. I 

 have seen him on the wrong side of a large cover at starting, and I haA^e seen 

 hounds .slip aAvay from him from other causes. I have known him meet with 

 falls and perpbxities, and appear in his place again in a trice, as though he 

 had been dro])ped from the clouds; but I never heard of or saw a good run 

 that, if Henry Wyatt was out, he did not see the best part of it, and made his 

 appearance at the finish. I never shall forget one fence I saw him ride over, 

 after his horse had been going some time. It was a hog-back broken stile, 

 quite as high as his horse's back, on a narrow, slippery footpath, and on a 

 considerable ascent. I certainly did not consider it a practicable fence, 

 situated as it was, and was surprised to see him well landed in the next field. 

 To be sure, he was upon a rare Int of stuff — his Morgan Rattler horse, long 

 and wide, but not tall. 



On October 31st the hounds had a brilliant run from 

 Itchington Heath to Chesterton, and from there to Bishop's 

 Itchington, through the covert there, and on to Ladbroke 

 Spinneys ; thence through the village, and leaving Southam 

 to the left, they ran near lladbourne Gorse,and lost the fox in 

 Napton Village, after running for an hour and five minutes. 



