THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



hiuiself rode. His name was William Barrow, commonly 

 called Will Barrow, and his brother Jack, also good in his 

 place, acted as his first whip. He saw a month's very good 

 sport with these hounds, and he saw some right good sports- 

 men in the field ; but what surprised him most, was the fact 

 that the two leading men over this strongly fenced and, in 

 parts, very deep country, weighed, with their saddles, good 

 seventeen stone. The name of these eminent horsemen and 

 sportsmen was Canning, the elder possessing a large property 

 in the country, and the younger also in possession of a very 

 considerable income. But the most extraordinary part of the 

 history of these gentlemen as sportsmen, is the fact of their 

 having — by reason of being Catholics — been educated abroad, 

 and never seeing a foxhound in the field until past their 

 twentj^-fifth year. The younger, Mr. Robert Canning, was the 

 finest horseman of the two; but their knowledge of fox- 

 hunting, and their judgment in riding to hounds, were not 

 inferior to those of the most experienced sportsman of the 

 day. Mr. Hawkes, so celebrated as an amateur jockey, and a 

 conspicuous man with Mr. Meynell's hounds in Leicestershire, 

 also then resided in Warwickshire, and was occasionally seen, 

 and, as it fell out at this identical time, by our hero, gallantly 

 crossino- its large grass enclosures on his thorough-bred nags, 

 delighted with the cheering voice of Will Barrow to his 

 ' lasses,' as he was used to call the bitch pack ; and, certainly, 

 no human voice ever exceeded his in a view-halloo or a cheer. 

 But 



' What more grateful to the ear, 

 Than the voice that speaks to cheer?' 



There was another very remarkable character, in the shape 

 of a sportsman of the old school, residing in the town of 

 Stratford, but a member of the Stratford Hunt, and an inti- 

 mate friend of Mr. Corbet. His name was Stubbs ; and so 

 insatiate was he of hunting, that, on the vacant days of the 

 foxhounds, he hunted with his own harriers ; and, indeed, on 

 one occasion, on a Sunday, when a fox broke out of his saddle- 

 room, during divine service. ' Saddle the dun horse,' said 

 he to his man, when lie told him what had happened, and 

 he immediately put his hounds on the scent. But what was 

 most remarkable in this very zealous fox-hunter, was the fact 



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