202 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



nearer seventeen stone than sixteen, very tall and 

 handsome ; an athlete, good boxer (he fought Asshe- 

 ton-Smith at Eton), a bold man over a country, and 

 a perfect lover of hounds. Modern sportsmen have 

 a greater knowledge of his son, Mr. John Chaworth, 

 and it is just twenty-six years ago this very week 

 that I visited that gentleman's kennel for Life, 

 not without some little difficulty, as he did not like 

 the scribes ; but that being overcome I duly put in 

 an appearance at his sporting home, and had the 

 pleasantest afternoon I have ever spent in my life, 

 examining and talking hounds with so much keen- 

 ness that it was very nearly dark before we ad- 

 journed to the stables. There I was shown True 

 Blue, who had carried Mr. Musters right through his 

 big run of two years before, when they ran for three 

 hours and twenty minutes, over thirty miles of 

 ground, before they pulled down as gallant a fox as 

 ever broke cover. Mr. Musters was then riding 

 eighteen stone, and his horses were like his hounds, 

 not over big. True Blue was the biggest, standing 

 i6 hands; but the others were 15.3, all beautiful in 

 shoulders, very big in back and loins, and well off in 

 double thighs. Many years afterwards I was chat- 

 ting to a huntsman who had lived as whip to Mr. 

 Musters, and also with the Meynell, and the conversa- 

 tion turning on welter weights, he expressed the 

 opinion that the two best heavy-weight gentlemen he 

 had ever seen were Mr. John Chaworth Musters and 

 Mr. Chandos Pole — the first to do a run of half a 



