200 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



Brocklesby Hunt Steeplechases in 1830. A very 

 extraordinary welter was Mr. Henley Greaves, as it 

 was acknowledged that he walked 20 St., and he was 

 talked of in the saddle to be 22 st. His was a long 

 hunting career, as he was a Master of Hounds for 

 eighteen years, having under his command at 

 different times the Cottesmore, the Southwold, the 

 Essex, the Warwickshire, the V.W.H., and the Old 

 Berks. Perhaps few better sportsmen ever lived than 

 Mr. Greaves, and when he gave up the Essex country 

 his stud of hunters made capital prices, as half the 

 welter weights in England were at the sale, and some 

 that had done ten or twelve years' service fetched 

 three good figures. This was a sure sign that Mr. 

 Greaves had ridden them well over a country, and, 

 in fact, few men ever went better. An amusing story 

 is told of Mr. Henley Greaves. It appears that he 

 was witness in a horse case, and Baron Huddlestone 

 was the counsel who cross - examined him. The 

 learned counsel, giving a malicious look at Mr. 

 Greaves (who filled the witness-box), said, ' Did the 

 horse roar, sir, before you got on him ? ' ' No,' was 

 the reply, ' certainly not' * Then he could not have 

 known you were going to ride him,' was the ready 

 rejoinder. Unlike so many of the welter-weight 

 sportsmen, Mr. Henley Greaves died comparatively 

 early, being only fifty-four at the time of his death, 

 and, en passant, the above Mr. Davey lived until he 

 was nearly ninety. I should be inclined to bracket 

 John Warde, Mr. Henley Greaves, and Mr. Villebois 



