THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



pleasures within tlic walls, secondary, I admit, to the others ; 

 for— 



No sport to the chase can compare, 



So manly the pleasure it yiekls ; 

 How sweet, how refreshing that air 



Inhaled in the woods and the fields ! 

 As we rusli in pursuit, new scenes still appear, — 



New landscapes encounter the eye ; 

 Not Handel's sweet music more pleases the ear, 



Than that of the hounds in full cry. 



New strength from the chase we derive ; 



Its exercise sweetens the blood ; 

 How happy those mortals must live, 



When sport yields both physic and food ! 

 So new and so varied their charms they ne'er cloy, 



Like those of the bottle and face ; 

 The oftener— the harder— the more we enjoy, 



The more we're in love with the chase. 



' Having become poetical, it is time to conclude ; so subscribe 

 myself, 



' Dear Hargrave, truly yours, 



' Frank Raby. 



' P.8. — My uncle has been very ill ; everybody says he is break- 

 ing fast. I hope not ; for he is too good a fellow to drop short 

 before his time ; and although there is no doubt of my being a 

 great gainer by his death, it is an event, so far from desiring, I 

 would do all in my power to avert.' 



There was an extraordinary character at this time hunting 

 with Sir Thomas Mostyn's hounds, and who afterwards made 

 himself so signal by his pedestrian feats, as to be known by 

 name and character to all the nations in the civilised world. I 

 allude to Captain Barclay, of Ury, in Aberdeenshire, who, a 

 few years subsequent to the period to which I am alluding, 

 performed the Herculean task of walking 1000 miles in 1000 

 hours, over Newmarket race-course, for a bet of several 

 thousand pounds. The Captain was likewise, at this period, a 

 great patron of the boxing ring; and our hero having some- 

 what of a penehcmt for the manly science of self-defence, their 

 acquaintance grew into intimacy, which continued through life. 

 He was also considered a good and scientific sportsman, as 

 well as an excellent judge of a hunter; and on the subject of 



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