90 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



Sir Richard FitzHerbert, who was only about seventeen 

 at the time, had none the worst of it. Charles Leedham 

 used to say that, up to about this time. Lord Stanhope, 

 afterwards Lord Chesterfield, used to be about the best 

 man with the Meynell, especially on Emmeline, or Mad 

 Moll, " till Mr. Dick FitzHerbert began to ride, when, as 

 soon as he passed him in a run, his lordship would pull 

 up, muttering, ' No fun,' and go home." There may have 

 been as good men as Sir Richard with the Meynell, but 

 there never was a better. He was a wonderfully nice, 

 quiet rider, with the best of hands, a strong seat, and, of 

 course, undeniable nerve. You never saw him flashing 

 about, jumping unnecessary places, or making himself con- 

 spicuous ; but the moment hounds settled down to run you 

 were aware of a long, spare figure in a black coat stealing 

 to the front and sticking there. He had an extraordinary 

 quick eye for hounds, was always with them, but never 

 over-rode them, and no one could ride a young horse 

 better. 



This is all put in the past tense, not because there is 

 any falling off in the horsemanship, only that, after he 

 became rector of Warsop, he did not come out regularly 

 with the Meynell. His two elder brothers, who un- 

 fortunately died young, were also quite first rate. 



Colonel FitzHerbert, too, who dressed very like his 

 elder brother, in hunting cap, and black boots coming up 

 over the knee, was just as good as the others. In fact, 

 with a slight alteration, Mr. Egerton Warburton's lines 

 exactly fit the case — 



" Were my life to depend on the wager, 

 I know not which member I'd back, 

 The Rector, the Squire, or the Major, 

 The purple, the pink, or the black." 



It is impossible to decide which was the best. Some 

 say one, some another ; the fact being that they all 

 excelled, each in his own way. Sir William was perhaps 

 the more brilliant and dashing rider, the Colonel could 

 nurse a horse the best, while the present baronet seems to 



