BIOGRAPHIES IN A NUTSHELL 131 



After dinner, eaten with an appetite which only fox- 

 hunting can procure, the carousals were often long 

 and deep. 



" Hark away ! Hark away ! While our spirits are gay, 

 Let us drink to the joys of next meeting day ! " 



was his motto. But it must not for a moment be 

 supposed that Mr. Forester was what would be termed 

 in these days a drunkard. He only drank after 

 dinner, and not always then, as the following incident 

 will prove. On one occasion Mr. Dansey, Mr. Childe, 

 and Mr. Stubbs were staying with him at Willey, 

 and they had arrived home earlier than usual after 

 their morning's sport. Dinner was served on their 

 arrival, and Mr. Forester proposed an after-dinner 

 run. Needless to say, the proposal was carried neni. 

 con., and Tom Moody was given his instructions. At 

 3 p.m. they drew for their fox, found him, and hounds 

 accounted for him by moonlight. The run is still 

 spoken of in Shropshire as the Beggarlybrook run. 

 The memory of Mr. Forester has been so often 

 assailed by the cranks who spit their puny spite on 

 harmless recreation that it is necessary to record his 

 public services outside the hunting field. For many 

 years he represented the borough of Wenlock in the 

 House of Commons, and he was Major of the Wen- 

 lock Loyal Volunteers, a regiment raised at the time 

 of the Irish Rebellion in 1798. His conduct towards 

 Dibdin, the poet, is a proof of his good nature and 

 refined feelings. He wished to make Dibdin, who 



