26 HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. 



Europe sat weightily on the throne of England, 

 Mr. ^A/'illiam Inman White, son of a Yorkshire 

 Squire, emigrated south, and made what turned 

 out to be a most judicious purchase, of a 

 property, known as Ribsmore, at Cheshunt, in 

 Hertfordshire, and there, on June 15th, 1829, 

 was born his eldest son, William Henry White, 

 the subject of this brief memoir. As became 

 his Yorkshire origin, Mr. Vv^illiam Inman White 

 was a lover of the horse, and the taste was 

 transmitted to his sons, the eldest of whom was 

 known to the end of his life as " Billy." After 

 a private education, he entered the Militia, and 

 obtained a captaincy in the 3rd Lancashire 

 Regiment. Though lacking none of the quali- 

 fications of a good officer, he was ambitious of 

 command in the hunting field rather than on the 

 Parade Ground, and in later life he preferred 

 not to assume his military title. His oppor- 

 tunity came in 1857, when, in his twenty-eighth 

 year, he accepted an invitation to take the 

 Mastership of the Stag Hounds established at 

 the fashionable Spa at Cheltenham, immor- 

 talised by Surtees (as some beUeve) under the 

 name of Handley Cross. The pack was pat- 

 ronized by Lord Fitzharding, but that famous 

 sportsman's career had come to a close, for, after 

 maintaining his foxhounds in princely style for 

 half a century, he had been incapacitated by a 

 fall in the hunting field. Early in September 

 the ex-Captain took up his quarters in Chelten- 

 ham at the Queen's Hotel, bringing with him, 

 as he records in his hunting diary, his chestnut 

 horse " Colonel," and two greyhounds. On the 



