92 Recollections of the Vine Hunt. 



was sometimes called * The father of foxhunting.* 

 The Craven was the last country that he held. It 

 would scarcely have satisfied him in his hard-riding 

 days ; but, with the age and weight to which he had 

 then attained, he did not object to its large woods, 

 uncertain scent, and short-running foxes, while it had 

 certainly much to recommend it. It was, in every 

 sense, a friendly country. A blank was unknown ; 

 if a second or a third fox was required, it could 

 generally be found; while the sociability of its ex- 

 cellent neighbourhood exactly suited Mr. Warde's 

 tastes, and afforded ample scope for his remarkable 

 powers of amusing conversation, whether by the 

 cover's side or at the dining table. 



Mr. Warde's kennels and stables were at Hunger- 

 ford ; and though rather rough and unsightly to the 

 eye, yet contained every provision necessary for the 

 well-being of the animals which inhabited them. 

 His stable arrangements were peculiar. His horses, 

 to the number, I think, of about a dozen, stood all 

 together in one undivided building, which seemed to 

 have been once a barn, and to have been adapted by 

 him to his present purpose. I believe that their 

 allowance of hay was limited ; but the more a horse 

 would consume of old oats and beans, the better did 

 Mr. Warde like him ; for it was a favourite maxim of 

 his, that 'the goodness of a hunter goes in at his 

 mouth.' The horses wore no clothing of any kind; 

 but the temperature of the stable, from so many 

 animals standing together, was high. The result, so 

 far as I was able to observe, was that they were bright 

 in their coats and in good health. Clipping was only 

 just beginning to be known, and was not practised in 



