THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



will agree with me, that it is one which cannot fail to show 

 sport, with a oood pack of hounds, which those that now hunt it 

 really are : and it is not very difficult to ride over. Your horses 

 are, no doubt, good timber and brick jumpers, as you have 

 plenty of that work in Essex : but when you come into War- 

 wickshire, you must expect a few falls, until your horses learn to 

 extend themselves in their leaps more than what is re(|uired in 

 Essex, many of the Warwickshire fences being composed of 

 either a strong blackthorn hedge, or a flight of rails, with a wide 

 ditch to boot, v/hich, if it happen to be on the landing side, acts 

 as a trap to your nag, unless he be prepared for it, by extending 

 himself in his leap. There are not many double fences ; less, I 

 think, than in any other country in which I have hunted ; but 

 unless a horse can go well in dirt, he has no business in War- 

 wickshire, for some part of it is infernally deep, especially on the 

 breaking up of a frost. I saw every horse blown to a standstill 

 in twelve minutes, the other day, in the neighbourhood of 

 Southon, which is the deepest part of any. It was a ridiculous 

 scene, when about a dozen of us came to a low gate, which none 

 of our horses had the power to leap. Robert Cannons at last 

 crammed his horse througli it, and so released us from our 

 prison ; for there was no other way of getting out of the held, 

 from the immense height and strength of the fence. In the 

 IMeriden country your horses will excel, because the fences there 

 are, for the most part, placed on a bank, and not planted on the 

 ground, as in the Stratford. I am going to finish the season in 

 the Atherstone country, from whence you may hear from me 

 again. In the meantime believe me, dear Hargrave, 



' Truly yours to the end, 



' Francis Raby.' 



No small degree of interest was excited in the breast of 

 our young sportsman on his arrival in the Atherstone country, 

 by reason of the high character he had heard of the nobleman 

 who then hunted it, and also of his huntsman, who had the 

 reputation of being one of the best at that time of his class. 

 The former was the amiable Lord Varney ; the latter, the 

 civil and unpresuming Sam Lawley, as clever a huntsman as 

 ever hallooed to a hound, and equally good in the saddle. 

 The hunt was distinguished as being composed of a select 

 number of gentlemen, of high character in their calling, and 



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