120 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



indeed all men's hunters should be, let their weight be great or small. I 

 only recognized one of the lot, and this was old Alphabet, which his 

 Grace purchased of Lord Lichfield when I was at Melton, together with 

 Jemmy Jumps, for nine hundred guineas, the two; and he appeared to 

 be as fresh as he was then, although now in, at least, his nineteenth year. 

 A finer sample indeed of the British hunter for fourteen stone might be 

 looked for in vain, and the long services he performed for the duke after 

 the many hot shirts he must have had under Lord Lichfield, when his 

 lordship hunted his own hounds in the Atherstone country, proved him 

 to have been made of the right stuff. Doubtless, a more aristocratic 

 looking animal cannot well be imagined, and I hope his Grace has got 

 his picture. The result of my inquiry after Jemmy Jumps was not so 

 favourable. The Anson pace and the hot shirts had made too deep an 

 impression upon him, and, comparatively with the other, he dropped into 

 a premature grave — or, in more appropriate words, had found his way 

 into the copper much before his time. But it is with horses as with 

 men, there are strong distinctions and great differences of excellence 

 betweeen them, and when once a sportsman has found out that he has 

 got a good one, nothing but necessity should induce him to part with 

 him. I think I once proved that a very heavy and hard riding gentleman* 

 saved more than two thousand pounds some years back, by refusing that 

 sum from the late Lord Middlcton for two hunters which he had proved 

 to be good ones, and able to stand his weight and pace. But there was 

 another horse in the duke's stud called Jemmy, which, although some- 

 what low in his back, greatly attracted my notice, appearing to have all 

 the requisites of a hunter for the duke's weight and pace. In my judg- 

 ment of this horse it appeared I was not mistaken ; for on my telling 



* The elder Mr. Edge, of Nottinghamshire, so conspicuous amongst the heavy 

 weights. 



