BIOGRAPHIES IN A NUTSHELL 115 



hunted the Thurlow country in Suffolk, travelling 

 overnight from one country to the other. The infirmi- 

 ties of age, and a diminished income, finally obliged 

 him to relinquish the horn. His hounds were sold at 

 Tattersall's, when six couples fetched 1,360 guineas, 

 Mr. Harvey Combe purchasing them for the Old 

 Berkeley country. 



As a horseman, the Squire wds facile princeps. In 

 appearance he had little of what is usually under- 

 stood by the term " sporting." He was rather below 

 the middle size, with a large and muscular frame, 

 and legs somewhat disproportioned to the body, 

 appearing, when on horseback, to belong rather to 

 the animal than to the man, so firm and steady was 

 his seat. His weight was eleven stone. His qualities 

 as a huntsman have given rise to much difference of 

 opinion, though there can be no doubt about his 

 assiduity and zeal, two qualities which go far towards 

 counterbalancing minor shortcomings. It has been 

 said that he wanted a little more command of temper, 

 and that when he lost his temper he lost his fox. 

 Certainly it could not be asserted of him, as was 

 asserted of Sir Edward Littleton's huntsman, that he 

 was never heard either to laugh or to swear. Dick 

 Christian had far from a high opinion of him as a 

 huntsman, for he wrote : " He was the oddest man 

 you ever saw at a covert-side. He would talk for an 

 hour ; then he would half draw and talk again, and 

 often blow his horn when there was no manner of 

 occasion, but he was always so chaffy." Another 



