U8 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



after a run of twelve miles. He then went back to 

 Broadway, twenty miles, and from thence to Chelten- 

 ham. Not contented with this, by way of finishing the 

 day he went badger-hunting at night in Queen's Wood 

 and West Wood, adding some eight or ten miles to his 

 day's work ; and in the course of the time he must have 

 gone over upwards of eighty miles of ground. Of what 

 use would a railway have been to such an untiring 

 specimen of human nature? In 1851, 'he shuffled off 

 his mortal coil,' and was ' earthed' in Charlton Church- 

 yard. 



Samuel Cornock, frequently announced as " Mister 

 Samuel Cornock of North Nibley, near Berkeley, in the 

 county of Gloucester," is another of those persons in 

 whom the love of hunting prevails above all other con- 

 siderations. Sammy boasts of no aristocratic parentage, 

 his father having been a weaver, an occupation which 

 prevails extensively in the clothing districts of the 

 west. At an early age he was apt to get off self- 

 hunting with the hounds kept by the late Earl 

 Berkeley, when they were in their home country-, for 

 which insubordination his father was wont to hunt him 

 round the room with a stick ; but the earl, noticing the 

 boy, often gave him a shilling, which had the effect of 

 a peace-offering with his parents. He attends the Earl 

 Fitzhardinge's hounds when in the Berkeley countr>% 

 but has seldom gone to Cheltenham ; and when they 

 are absent, ' he hunts with the duke ; ' his costume is 

 the coat of whichever hunt is honoured by his presence 

 — ^a present of course from one of the members ; the 

 skirts of which he preserves with great diligence 

 and care by fastening them in front to prevent their 

 being splashed ; a white ' tile ' surmounts the whole. 

 He mentions having gone, some years since, to meet the 

 Duke of Beaufort's hounds at Draycott Park, more 

 than eighteen miles 'to covert.' They had a capital 

 run with their first fox, which they killed, and they ran 

 a second a considerable time when, having ten miles to 

 trudge home, he left them. This, he says, was the 



