212 mnQS of tbe 1buntinc(==fiel^ 



hunting with him, and gamble with the Duke of 

 Cumberland (not him of Culloden fame, but the brother 

 of George III.) in the intervals of the chase; the Earl 

 of Jersey, father of the famous Turfite, and husband of 

 the wanton beauty who wrought such havoc with the 

 domestic peace of the fourth George ; the Earl of 

 Chesterfield, who for three seasons dazzled the followers 

 of the Buckhounds with the magnificence of his establish- 

 ment ; Earl Granville, courteous, affable, the ' Soapy 

 Sam ' of politics and diplomacy ; Lord Hardwicke, the 

 popular and jovial, whose magnificence rivalled that of 

 Lord Chesterfield ; the Earl of Cork, the mildest- 

 mannered man that ever carried the gold couples ; 

 and Lord Suffield, of whom Lord Ribblesdale says : 

 ' Lord Suffield has the art of galloping like steam 

 between his fences, and yet jumping the place almost 

 from a stand. He thus negotiates the trappiest obstacles 

 with safety and despatch, without upsetting high- 

 couraged and even fractious animals, and — for this is 

 the real point — without giving spectators the faintest 

 impression of sticky ' come-up ' sort of riding. This 

 means fine hands. The first time Lord Suffield went 

 out with the Duhallow, a country which in the opinion 

 of the natives is only practicable to those brought up 

 within a few miles of Cork, they could never catch him 

 for twenty minutes, a surprised top-sawyer of the hunt 

 being overheard thus to exhort his friend : ' For God's 

 sake, Mike, ride at the man in the beard ! ' Lastly, 

 Lord Ribblesdale himself and the present Master, 

 whom his predecessor thus eulogizes : ' Unsurpassed 

 as a judge of a horse or a hound, and one of the most 

 undeniable cross-country riders of his day. Lord Coventry 

 brings knowledge and experience to bear upon every 



