THE CHACE. 
the Duke of Grafton's late huntsman, and father of the 
present absolutely essential to those which, like his, 
hunted strong woodland countries. To the eye of a 
room,' used to drive them over it most unmercifully, and generally soon 
lost their first fox for them. As soon, however, as Tom's company had 
left him, or he had left them, by slipping down-wind with a few farmers 
and a field he could controul, no hounds would sooner settle to their 
scent, or make more of it. If the scent would let them, none could twist 
him up sooner., Tom had one failing, (and who has not?) which was, 
that he was too strongly prejudiced in favour of his own sort, and thereby 
lost the advantage which is derived from judiciously crossing, and which 
has so mainly contributed to the improvement of hounds in the present 
day. He had generally many lame hounds, which arose, not from any 
fault of his, but from the dampness of the kennel, in which there arose 
upright springs ; which (whatever may be the case now) were not cured 
in his time. Though not an elegant, he was a capital horseman, and no 
one got better to his hounds. He did not like either a difficult or a raw 
horse, and he was not what is called a bruising rider ; but he well knew 
the pace his horse was going, and always kept something in him. He 
did not like cramming him at large fences ; but, like his inimitable pupil, 
Charles King, would always let any aspiring rider break the binders for 
him, and would rather get his horse's hind legs into the middle of a fence 
and make him creep through it, than let him jump. 
" He had a sharp eye for a gap, or the weakest place in a fence, and 
could bore a hole through a black, dark double hedge better than most 
men. In the latter part of his life, he had a propensity highly disagree- 
able to a horseman's eye : he used to poke his horse on the head till he 
frightened him out of his senses, held him too hard, and frequently made 
him jump short, either before or behind. The consequence was, he often 
spoilt his beauty in a scramble, or lay on his back, as the penalty of his 
cowardice. However, he got well to his hounds without upsetting his 
horse ; and when he was with them he knew well when to stir them, and 
when to let them alone. 
" Some five-and-thirty years ago, no pack was better appointed. The 
horses came chiefly from the racing stud, and all the men were well 
mounted. Dick Forster* and Ned Allen, then both in high feather, were 
of the first order of the profession (Jackett, too, was a famous assistant, 
and a fine rider), quick, active, and light, and always ready to play into 
* Now huntsman to Mr. Villebois, in Hampshire. 
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