81 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



besides which,*' added he, " people in this country will 

 think you never had a fall before." The latter part of 

 his counsel made some impression, the former a great 

 deal. When hunting in the Albrighton country, then 

 under the management of Mr. Boycott, and riding a 

 horse belonging to Mr. William Grazebrook, poor 

 Lockley had a bad fall, from the effects of which he 

 never recovered ; and he breathed his last at that 

 gentleman's house. This happened, if my calculations 

 are correct, in the spring of 1827 ; consequently he had 

 nearly attained the patriarchal age of eighty years. If 

 his activity had failed him his pluck had not ; for a very 

 few seasons before the accident occurred which termin- 

 ated so fatally, he had distinguished himself in the 

 three best runs of the year — in Leicestershire, 

 Warwickshire and Shropshire. 



Without presuming to be an accomplished scholar, 

 Mr. Lockley was ' well up ' in sporting language, and 

 always appeared annoyed when he heard it mutilated. 

 He had a great and proper aversion to hear a hound 

 called a dog, and used to say it was an insult to the 

 highest-bred and most sagacious of our domestic 

 animals, synonymous with snob as applied to the 

 human race ; and invariably included any person who 

 made use of the term in the category of the synonym. 

 During the latter period of his life the word ' meet ' 

 came into use as designating the appointment or place 

 of meeting of hounds, to which he had an equal dislike. 

 I remember a juvenile sportsman saying to him one 

 day when out hunting, ''Where is the meet to- 

 morrow.^" Upon which he replied, "There will be a 

 leg of mutton on my table to-morrow at six o'clock, if 

 that is what you mean, and I shall be happy if you 

 will come and partake of it." So far he was right, for 

 the word is not to be found as a substantive in our 

 language upon the authority of the dictionaries ; it has 

 been coined for the purpose, and custom has brought it 

 into use as a common term ; nevertheless it is not a 

 correct one, or an elegant mode of expression. 



