XTbe IDillebois 397 



Mr Villebois snapped eagerly at the chance. * If you 

 really mean what you say, sir, I shall be delighted to do 

 so.' Mr Russell, thus taken literally at his word, was 

 too proud and indignant to withdraw, and surlily shut 

 up his hunting establishment, selling his hounds to Mr 

 Villebois, who, to the delight of his neighbours, started 

 hunting the country in a style which had never been 

 known there before. It is pleasant to be able to add 

 that the feud between him and Mr Russell soon ceased, 

 and the Master of Greywell became one of the staunchest 

 supporters of the new regime. The latter was too keen a 

 lover of the sport to be able to give it up. He used 

 to say that he never committed any sins during the 

 hunting season, because he hunted six days a week and 

 went to church twice on Sundays, consequently he had 

 never time to do anything sinful. 



Mr John Truman Villebois' ample means enabled 

 him to keep up the H.H. entirely at his own expense. 

 He would not allow even a single earth to be stopped at 

 any one's cost but his own. He had as his first hunts- 

 man, John Major, a fine horseman and as clever a man 

 in the kennel and the hunting-field as there was in 

 England. But unfortunately he had one fatal weakness 

 — an insatiable thirst which he tried to quench with gin. 

 He wore out the patience even of his kind-hearted master 

 by his habitual intemperance, lost his post, and went 

 gradually down till he came to breaking stones on the 

 high road and died in the workhouse. 



Mr John Truman Villebois was also a member of the 

 original Hambledon Club, and in 1805 became sole 

 Master of the Hambledon Hounds, which he hunted in 

 splendid style till 1837, a period which old sportsmen 

 will tell you constituted the Golden Age of fox-hunting 



