146 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



the Haw, in the most commanding situation, from 

 whence he could obtain a view of the surrounding 

 country; so that if from old age or sickness 1 he might 

 not be able to follow hounds on horseback, he would be 

 able to mount his observatory and watch their pro- 

 ceedings. It was an extraordinary precedent, evincing 

 circumspection and provision for the enjoyment of his 

 only earthly Paradise in the event of accident or infir- 

 mity. This worthy, kind-hearted, highly-respected, 

 enthusiastic sportsman died at the age of seventy-one 

 in the year 1835, without, I am informed, ever having 

 made use of his eccentric Pegasus. 



Contemporary with Jerry Hawkins was Mr. Fretwell, 

 usually known as Tommy Fretwell, who was also at one 

 period engaged in agricultural pursuits, which, however, 

 he relinquished many years since to enjoy the society 

 of his friends at Cheltenham, where at one period he 

 had the management of a pack of harriers. His name 

 is recorded by the Poet Goulburn in his exquisitely 

 amusing and sporting poem, The Epwell Hunt, de- 

 scriptive of a run in Warwickshire with the late Mr. 

 Corbet's hounds after a second fox from Epwell to 

 Heythrop in the Duke of Beaufort's Hunt, over a 

 country twenty-three miles in extent, wherein divers 

 disasters ' by flood and field ' are humourously ex- 

 pressed. After describing the finding of this second fox 

 and the line he took, the poet continues : 



" From thence, quite determined to give us our fill, 

 For Swarf ord he made, and went right up the hill, 

 Cross'd the road at a speed that made some people stare, 

 And was fatal, poor Fretwell, alas ! to your mare." 



The decease of this worthy specimen of the fox- 

 hunter of the ' olden tune ' took place on the 4th of 

 May, 1848, to the great regret of all his brother sports- 

 men. He was buried at Fladbury. 



Whoever has hunted at Cheltenham must have met 

 with the well-known Jem Hastings. His history is 

 singular. He was a man of respectable family, his pre- 



