CAPTAIN JOHN WHITE. 



Melton Mowbray, though still holding the proud 

 title of ' The Metropolis of Hunting/ is a very different 

 place now from what it was in the first three or four 

 decades of the present century. Probably those who 

 make it their headquarters during the hunting season 

 would be deeply and justly offended if it were described 

 as dull, but it certainly is far less lively, though, no 

 doubt, much more decorous, than in the wild days when 

 Captain John White and his chum Captain Maxse, 

 Val Maher, Squire Osbaldeston, Horatio Ross, Lord 

 Kennedy, Captain Douglas, Sir David Baird, the 

 Marquis of Waterford, and others of the like kidney 

 ' made things hum ' there. A hard-riding, hard-drinking 

 set they were, always ready for any devilment, or any 

 deed of reckless daring, for no bolder spirits, no finer 

 horsemen, no more enthusiastic sportsmen ever fore- 

 gathered in any one spot on this earth from the days 

 of Nimrod to our own. 



Among the foremost of these madcaps was Captain 

 John White, whose claim to a place among famous 

 fox-hunters the following brief record of his exploits 

 will, I think, satisfactorily establish. Coming of a good 

 county family, John White was born at Dalesford in 

 Cheshire in the year 1790, and was sent to school at 



