BIOGRAPHIES IN A NUTSHELL 135 



the Needle's Eye at the Wrekin before accounting for 

 their quarry. My readers have only to glance at 

 the map to see the distance which must have been 

 covered. It has often been suggested to me that 

 these records are exaggerated, but I do not think 

 that there is any truth in the suggestion. 



" Thus Tom spoke his friends ere he gave up his breath : 

 ' Since I see j'ou've resolved to be in at the death, 

 One favour bestow — 'tis the last I shall crave — 

 Give a rattling view-halloa thrice over my grave ; 

 And unless at that warning I lift up my head, 

 My boys, you maj' fairly conclude I am dead ! ' 

 Honest Tom was obeyed, and the shout rent the sky, 

 For everyone joined in the tally-ho cry." 



I have quoted the above lines from Dibdin's well- 

 known poem as the best preface to any mention of 

 Mr. Forester's famous whipper-in. Let me correct 

 at once a statement which I have often heard made, 

 that Tom Moody was Mr. Forester's huntsman. Tom 

 Moody never carried the horn. My authority is Mr. 

 Randall. I mention this, because Tom Moody is 

 constantly referred to as a huntsman, though any 

 native of Shropshire knows at the present day that 

 Mr. Forester hunted his own hounds. So far as 

 posterity is concerned, Tom Moody owes his reputa- 

 tion to Dibdin. He was a bold and fearless rider, 

 but a very wet one. In fact, he was seldom sober in 

 the pigskin. He would ride any horse at anything 

 or anybody, and he was devoted to his master ; but I 

 doubt if a modern M.F.H. would keep him in his 

 employment for a week. Still, there can be little 



