FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 165 



licked Sir Bellingham's hand : but though his 

 head was close to the trough and the grateful 

 viands smoking under his nose, he never at- 

 tempted to eat ; but on his master saying to 

 him, ' Go back, Vulcan, you have no business 

 here,' he immediately retreated and mixed with 

 the hungry crowd/' 



'* Nimrod '' has also left a full record of the 

 hunting of 1825-6, and of the characters of some 

 of the more famous of the hard-riding gentlemen 

 of those days. Mr. Lyster of Rowton, Lloyd of 

 Aston, Councillor Slaney of Shrewsbury, Wynne 

 the Shrewsbury surgeon, and, of course, the 

 eccentric Jack Mytton. One may read in his 

 pages of famous runs from the favourite meets. 

 Arcall Mill, with its gorse covert, a rarity in 

 Shropshire ; of a run of forty-five minutes from 

 Twemlows, the crack covert of the hunt, a run 

 that was ended for all but the hounds by the 

 Severn, which the bitch pack swam, and killed 

 their fox by themselves in gallant style. ''Nimrod'' 

 tells us, too, of a day at Acton Burnall, where he 

 saw three gentlemen riding at gates all tumbling 

 over their horses' heads without their horses 

 falhng. Jack Mytton, Mr. Rock, and Mr. Byrne 

 from Ireland, this last sportsman going to a 

 brook and wetting the knees of his breeches to 

 enable him to stick to the saddle ; of a splendid 



