Oeoroe ®sbal^eston 221 



abode at Bath. It was at Dash's ' Riding Academy ' in 

 that fashionable city that he received his first lessons in 

 horsemanship. He soon showed himself an apt pupil, 

 and, so proud was his master of the young Squire's 

 riding, that whenever parents came to arrange about 

 sending their sons to the ' Academy,' young Osbaldeston 

 was invariably put on something smart, in order to 

 display the efficiency of Mr Dash's system of teaching. 



When Mrs Osbaldeston left Bath, her son was sent 

 to Eton, where he soon became the fastest runner and 

 the best oarsman and bowler in the school. His skill 

 as a boxer also developed itself early, and whenever there 

 was a Windsor boy with a fighting reputation, George 

 was at once selected as the Eton representative to 

 thrash him. The feat of running from Eton to Ascot 

 Races and back after school hours, a distance of some 

 twenty miles, was often accomplished by young Osbal- 

 deston, and more than once he was caught in flagrante 

 delicto, and had to suffer the penalty. There are prob- 

 ably still preserved among the traditions of Eton some 

 of George Osbaldeston's many daring ' larks.' 



On leaving school, George was placed under the 

 charge of Dr Carr, vicar of Brighton, to be prepared 

 for Oxford, and in May 1805, at the age of nineteen, he 

 matriculated as a gentleman-commoner of Brasenose, 

 where, as might have been expected, he was distin- 

 guished more for his sporting than his scholastic 

 attainments. 



From his earliest days * the Squire ' was passionately 

 fond of hunting, and he made his debut as a master 

 when he was twenty-one, having purchased from Lord 

 Jersey a fine pack of harriers, with which he hunted the 

 country round his family estate of Hutton Bushell. His 



