I30 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



were beyond reproach, yet it must be confessed that 

 some of them took advantage of the latitude which 

 was allowed to fox-hunting squires. The most 

 notorious of these was " Squire " George Forester of 

 Willey ; yet he was a thoroughbred specimen of 

 " a fine old English gentleman, who had a great 

 estate," during the first decade of the nineteenth 

 century. He was like a moving plant which receives 

 its nourishment from the air, and he lived chiefly 

 through his senses. His passion for fox-hunting was 

 unbounded. He hunted the country from the Clee 

 Hills to the Wrekin in Shropshire, with the famous 

 Tom Moody as whipper-in, and with such well-known 

 associates as Mr. Dansey, Mr. Childe, Mr. Stubbs, of 

 Beckbury, Squire Boycott, of Rudge, and Parson 

 Stephens. The hospitality of the Willey Squire, as 

 he was called, was unbounded. His home at Willey 

 has been immortalised by Dibdin as " Bachelor's 

 Hall." It is no exaggeration to say that few names 

 are better known in the annals of fox-hunting than 

 those of the Willey Squire and Tom Moody. 



Was it not Thackeray who wrote " The England 

 of our ancestors was a merrier England than the 

 island we inhabit " ? In many respects it was a 

 healthier England, in spite of the hard - drinking 

 customs of the age, as can be proved by the statistics 

 of longevity. Mr. Forester belonged to the old school 

 of fox-hunters. On hunting mornings he never 

 breakfasted later than 4 a.m., and would be in the 

 saddle at 5 a.m. ; then home again to dinner at 3 p.m. 



