EARL OF LONSDALE. 189 



excellent sport, were considered Cockney game, beneath 

 the dignity of the real fox-hunter, and great fun was 

 made of their doings. But the Earl was not to be beat, 

 and he determined to sec what he could do by hunting 

 and training these Cumberland animals. The Station 

 Hotel was kept by a rare old sportsman, Mr. Sam 

 Brown, a twin-brother of John Brown, who rode his 

 horse Confidence in the first Aylesbury Steeplechase 

 in 1835 (these two men were born in or about 1794, and 

 only joined the majority two or three years since, at 

 ninety-two and ninety-four years of age, and they rode 

 young horses up to three or four years of their decease). 

 There was a large barn adjoining the hotel, and inside 

 it were arranged rows of cages, which contained the 

 foxes ; and within the building fences and rails were 

 put up, and their keeper, " the man with the broom," 

 was accustomed every morning to stir up " Reynard," 

 and exercise him backwards and forwards over these 

 artificial fences. On certain days, the Earl and the field 

 would go out and look for a hare, when a man would 

 come up and say, " My Lud, I seed a fox go away 

 yonder." " Thank you, my man," the Earl would reply, 

 giving him half-a-crown ; " show me where." Mr. William 

 Reid, who lived at The Node, near Hitchin, and who 

 hunted with the Hertfordshire, was so jealous of the 

 sport these foxes gave that he composed some verses, 

 which were inserted in Bell's Life, the then great 

 sporting paper of the day; these were quoted and 

 sung in almost every sporting county in England at 

 that time. 



