154 THE WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. [1842 



evidently liuntsman and whip, who have just caught sight 



of their sinking fox. One is turning round in his saddle 



to point him out to the other. The inscription is as 



follows : 



Presented by the 



Leamington Sporting Committee and other Friends of 



FOX HUNTINa 



to 



Mr. E. Stevens, 



Huntsman to the Warwickshire Hounds, 



in acknowledgment of his efficient services in that capacity. 



1846. 



Stevens remained as huntsman to the Warwickshire 

 for four more seasons, and continued to show good sport, 

 and in the year 1851 he went to Lincolnshire as huntsman 

 to Lord Henry Bentinck,* that thorough, hut somewhat 

 eccentric sportsman. We have no record of the sport he 

 showed in that country, which he did not like as much as 

 Warwickshire, but he served under a master who under- 

 stood hunting about as well as any sportsman in England. 



* Lord Henry Beiitinck was a great sportsman and a remarkable man. I 

 remember his coming to see a hunter belonging to Mr. Cooper, of Farnborough, in the 

 summer, when he was as usual dressed in black with a white tie. When he asked to 

 bo allowed to ride the horse, Mr. Cooper, taking him for a Methodist parson, said, " You 

 will never ride him." Lord H. then made himself known, and, gi-eatly to Mr. C.'s 

 astonishment, mounted and rode the horse like the perfect horseman he was, and gave 

 300Z. for him. I also remember dining with him alone at Lincoln, where he lived, 

 after a day's hunting with his hounds, and hearing all that he had to relate of a long 

 life of sport ; and no man living had seen more or better understood hunting, salmon 

 fishing, and deer stalking, and I learnt mvich from him that was of use in after years. 

 I asked him on that occasion if he still owned a horse which, when five years old, had 

 been offered to me for sale, but I did not buy him because he stood over to such an 

 extent that his legs were quite crooked. Lord H. replied, " I have still got him, and 

 although I am very particular, I consider him the best horse I ever had." I after- 

 wards saw him sold at Lord H.'s sale, when he had given up hunting, at the age of 

 seventeen, for more than his original price of 130?., for which sum I might have bought 

 him. Lord H. always interviewed his huntsman after dinner, and told him that he 

 ought to have made certain unsuccessful casts in a different direction. Lord H. hunted 

 the whole of Lincolnshire six days a week, carrying the horn on two days himself. He 

 rented what is now two large deer forests, besides a grouse moor and a large part of the 

 Lochy river, living there, as he did elsewhere, almost alone. He, partly on account of 

 fear of the gout and partly to keep himself in training for hard work, drank Uttle else 

 but water, and he carried nothing for luncheon but a single biscuit in his pocket. He 

 died at Saxby Hall, the residence of my friend the late Mr. Hope Barton, and the 

 cause of death was undoubtedly his state of over training, amounting to actual 

 starvation. — C. M. 



