THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



animal, he was not a strong-nerved man over a country. He 

 was shy of timber and wide brooks, and, therefore, judiciously 

 avoided entering into a pursuit in which he was aware he could 

 not shine. Next, he was bred up a hare-hunter, and considered 

 that the act of confining his attention to one sort of hunting 

 would be the surest means of perpetuating the fame of his 

 father's kennel, if not of increasing it. Thirdly, he had numer- 

 ous duties to perform as a magistrate, and otherwise, exclusive 

 of those of his own domestic station, which were less inter- 

 rupted by the gentler pursuit of the hare ; but when the fox- 

 hounds appeared in his neighbourhood, he would often see 

 them find their fox, and they were nearly certain to do so in 

 any of his own covers. Had a keeper of his levelled his gun at 

 a fox, or designedly caught him in a trap, he would have been 

 discharged on the morrow, as having committed a flagrant dis- 

 obedience of orders. 



Neither was Mr. Raby a racing man. To speak the truth, 

 although quiet, even to diffidence, in his deportment, there was 

 in his nature an ambition to excel in what he attempted. His 

 estate was the best conditioned in his county ; his harriers 

 were, perhaps, the best of that day in England ; his pointers 

 and setting dogs — for he used the latter to the net — were per- 

 fect of their kind ; and his breed of spaniels was sought after 

 by every sportsman who had heard of it. But he was aware 

 that, had he sought for it, excellence on the lurf was out of his 

 reach. Even the legitimate means of ensuring success, as the 

 experience of many of his friends had convinced him, were 

 doubtful ; the illegitimate ones he would not have availed 

 himself of, if presented to him. 



There is one part of Mr. Raby's conduct as a sportsman of 

 which notice should not, on any account, be omitted, inasmuch 

 as it affords an example highly worthy of imitation by all 

 whose means give them the power. I allude to the generous 

 care he took of his worn-out hunters and coach-horses, in lieu 

 of the too common practice of selling them for trifiing sums, 

 and exposing them to severe labour when least able to endure 

 it. He had, after the manner of a master of foxhounds of the 

 present day,^ a range of pastures sacred to the repose of these 

 pensioners on his bounty, in which they enjoyed themselves in 

 perfect freedom from labour, and in full supply of all that old 

 ' The Viscount Kelbunie. 



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