182 muQB Of tbe 1bulltina^ffiel^ 



sold with its debts, and Apperley being wholly unable 

 to meet the demands upon him, fled to Calais, whence 

 he did not return till twelve years later, when the most 

 exacting of his creditors were dead. 



Meanwhile Messrs Ackerman, the well-known sport- 

 ing print-sellers, started the Sporting Review in opposi- 

 tion to the Sporting Magazine, and secured the ser- 

 vices of ' Nimrod,' who, however, wrote nothing for the 

 new venture comparable to his ' Hunting Tours.' But 

 the seal was set to ' Nimrod's ' fame when in 1838 John 

 Gibson Lockhart, son-in-law of Sir Walter Scott, was 

 happily inspired to invite Apperley to write for the 

 Quarterly Review. ' Nimrod's' three famous articles in the 

 Quarterly on the Turf, the Chase, and the Road created 

 a perfect /}/r(?r^ at the time. ' I have found a man,' wrote 

 Lockhart enthusiastically to John Murray, ' who can 

 hunt like Hugo Meynell and write like Walter Scott.' 

 And even at this distance of time one can read those 

 essays with pleasure. It is generally admitted that the 

 7"//^ article is inferior to the other two, for the reason 

 that the author trusted largely to second-hand informa- 

 tion and was not altogether at home with his subject. 

 But the essays on ' The Chase ' and ' The Road ' are in 

 every way admirable, for he had a thorough practical 

 knowledge of both subjects. In his later days he was 

 one of the best whips in England, and was frequently 

 taken for a professional coachman, so expert and scien- 

 tific was his handling of the ribbons. For these essays 

 he received 170 guineas, and for four of a similar 

 character in the Encyclopccdia Britannica, 280 guineas. 

 As a specimen of ' Nimrod ' at his best, I know of nothing 

 better than the famous description of a run with the 

 Quorn, which still stands unrivalled in hunting literature. 



