JEM HASTINGS 147 



decessors having been claimants for the Huntingdon 

 peerage, upon which unsuccessful claim they expended 

 nearly the whole of their substance, leaving the subject 

 of this memoir in reduced circumstances, and he was 

 brought up as a tailor. He seems, however, to have 

 had ' hunting blood ' in his veins, and preferred the 

 chase of the fox to handling the goose. He followed 

 Lord Fitzhardinge's hounds about five and twenty 

 years, and always on foot ; for whether it was in associ- 

 ation with his trade or not I cannot say, but he had an 

 unconquerable aversion to the pig-skin. 



One of his first personal essays of a sporting nature 

 was a frolic which had nearly resulted in a fatal con- 

 clusion. Jem owned a terrier dog, and while one of the 

 London coaches was changing horses in the High Street 

 of Cheltenham, he applied ' a drag ' not to the wheel 

 but to the hinder part of the vehicle, in the form of a 

 red-herring; when the coach started, he laid the terrier 

 on the scent. He was soon joined by every cur and 

 mongrel on the line, and Jem cheering on his pack, 

 they entered the Gloucester road in full cry. Excited 

 by the novelty of the pursuit the horses became un- 

 manageable, and things began to wear a serious aspect, 

 but ' the mixed pack ' succeeded in running the coach 

 to ground in a ditch near the Pheasant public house, 

 without any serious accident. 



The extraordinary distances which he has travelled 

 apj>ear almost incredible; they are, nevertheless, incon- 

 testibly correct. On one occasion, the hounds being 

 at Berkeley, he walked from Cheltenham to the 

 kennels, five and twenty miles, when he found they 

 were gone to Haywood, beyond Thornbury, nine 

 miles further, to which place he followed them, and 

 was in time to see the day's sport. The most wonder- 

 ful performance was one day when they were in the 

 Broadway country. He walked from Cheltenham, 

 which is sixteen miles, and on to the covert side, a 

 moiety of that distance ; he followed the hounds all 

 day, and was with them when they killed their fox 



