236 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



I could bring forward innumerable instances 

 similar to the above, but my greatest triumph is now 

 at hand : — Mr Harvey Combe, with whom I had passed 

 a few days whilst hunting with the Old Berkeley 

 hounds, and who, I had previously heard, and was 

 soon convinced, was a strenuous opposer of the system 

 of summering hunters in the house, and no argument 

 of mine appeared to make the least impression upon 

 him. On the last evening of our meeting, however, 

 he addressed me thus : "I certainly have opposed 

 your plan, but I never shut my eyes to conviction ; 

 and, from what I have seen of your horses, and the 

 manner in which they have carried you, I shaU not 

 turn my horses to grass again in the summer." 



Meeting with Henry Oldaker the next morning, 

 on my road to Sir Thomas Mostyn's hounds, I ad- 

 dressed him thus : " Oldaker, I congratulate you." 

 — " On what, Sir ? " said he. " Why," rephed I, 

 " next season you will ride across the country like a 

 gentleman ; your horses wiU be kept in condition in 

 the summer." — " Mr Combe told me so yesterday," 

 continued Oldaker. 



Now, reader, one hundred sovereigns is a very 

 pretty " find " in any man's pocket, and particularly 

 so in one which is sometimes drawn a blank ; but, 

 as I hope for salvation, I would not take that sum 

 for this admission of Mr Combe's. It had no little 

 additional weight with me, as coming from a man, 

 not only a good judge of most things, but a man 

 remarkable for a natural independence of mind and 

 manner, which is observable at first sight. 



