76 Recollections of the Vine Htmt, 



Mr. Chute had a whimsical objection to seeing a 

 horse lying down in the stable in the daytime. If he 

 found the horses which had been hunted the day before 

 in this comfortable and salutary posture, he would stir 

 them up with his stick, saying that it was not respect- 

 ful in a horse to lie down before his master; and that 

 it looked as if they were tired, which was just what 

 they were, and what they had a right to be. I can 

 say nothing in favour either of the good sense or the 

 humanity of this strange fancy. 



But some of his most characteristic oddities came 

 out in his manner of quizzing his old bailiff, Coxe, 

 who managed the home farm, in the success of which 

 his own interests were concerned. Mr. Chute took an 

 actual pleasure in this man's failures, and was most 

 especially delighted whenever the hay intended for 

 farm purposes was injured, after he had secured all 

 that he required for his hunters in good condition. I 

 once expressed to him my concern at having seen 

 some of his hay long out in the rain. * My hay ! ' said 

 he, * what do you mean } I've no hay out. I got up 

 all mine famously last week.' I mentioned the field 

 of his in which I had observed it. ' O, pooh ! 'said he, 

 ' that was not my hay, that was Coxe's ! Silly fellow ! 

 it serves him right, and I am glad of it ; he might have 

 got it all up a week ago, if he had had any sense.' 



But though Mr. Chute was thus bright and amusing, 

 yet it cannot be said that he succeeded eminently in 

 any of his main objects of pursuit in life. It always 

 seemed to me to be the fault of his mind that he 

 fixed his attention on little, instead of on great matters, 

 and often mistook exceptions for rules. He was acute 

 in observing minute points, in which he thought he 



