The Men. 67 



sonably good horse standing at the Flower Pots. 

 Sometimes he sold one to a gentleman of either hunt, 

 who all knew and noticed him. The first time I was 

 allowed to go out hunting without my father, I was 

 placed especially under his care ; and as he used also 

 to drive me to and from Winchester School several 

 times in the year, I came to look upon him as an old 

 friend. 



There were, of course, others whom I have forgotten; 

 but these, I think, were the chief notables in the field 

 at the time of which I am writing. The ordinary 

 number might have been from twenty to thirty horse- 

 men, though on some occasions there were many 

 more. 



If I had written a generation or two earlier, I might 

 probably have had to record that a general improve- 

 ment in the manners and language of sportsmen had 

 taken place within my recollection. Beckford indeed 

 claims this improvement for his own times. He ob- 

 serves, in his fourteenth letter, that ^ the intemperance, 

 clownishness, and ignorance of the old foxhunter 

 are quite worn out ; ' and that * foxhunting is now 

 become the amusement of gentlemen, nor need any 

 gentleman be ashamed of it' How far this was gene- 

 rally true of the sportsmen of his day, I do not pre- 

 tend to say. Mr. Beckford himself was undoubtedly 

 an instance of a foxhunter of cultivated mind, literary 

 taste, and no inconsiderable talent ; but this I can 

 positively assert, that, in my youth, the manners and 

 language of the hunting field were as refined and 

 gentlemanlike as in the dining and drawing rooms of 

 the neighbourhood. One great change, however, has 

 taken place, within my recollection, in the society of 



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