Ubc f it3\vmiams 275 



the hound from head to stern and remark in his gentle 

 tone, that " it couldn't be more beautiful of it had been 

 spoke-shaved." ' 



Tom Sebright was a model huntsman in the field. 

 His manner was particularly courteous and pleasing, and 

 when some impatient ' thrusters ' showed a disposition to 

 press upon the hounds, his mild, respectful, ' Hold hard, 

 gentlemen, pray hold hard,' had a more prompt effect 

 than any volley of oaths. 



In the autumn of 1 860 Tom received a very gratifying 

 tribute to his worth, in the shape of 800 sovereigns pre- 

 sented to him in a silver cup by the Duke of Manchester 

 at a crowded public meeting held at the Huntingdon 

 Town Hall. So hale, hearty and strong did he look, as 

 he stood up in his scarlet coat, with green plush collar, 

 his dark corduroys and polished tops, to acknowledge mod- 

 estly the handsome gift, that no one would have dreamt 

 that his career would close so soon. But a bad fall from 

 a grey mare he was riding re.sulted in injuries which, 

 though they did not immediately incapacitate him from 

 hunting, produced a terrible hacking cough which no one 

 who heard it could doubt to be his death-knell. His accus- 

 tomed seat in the parish church, from which for years he 

 had never been absent on Sunday mornings, soon knew 

 him no more — he felt that the cough, which he could not 

 suppress, was an annoyance to the congregation. Then 

 one day, while he was taking the hounds for exercise, he 

 turned suddenly sick with a sharp pain in his side, 

 had to come home, was only just able to get out of the 

 saddle and stagger upstairs to his bed, from which he 

 never again rose. ' The Druid ' gives this pathetic 

 picture of the fine old huntsman's last hours : — 



' His son Harry and his son-in-law helped to nurse him 



