28 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



Avon, and the members of it dined together every other Thursday 

 during the season. It was composed of the principal sporting 

 gentlemen residing in Warwickshire, including several others from 

 the adjoining comitries, who made Stratford their head-quarters 

 during the winter. Although the Club only met once a fortnight, 

 there were always some members of it staying at Stratford, for 

 whom dinner was provided in the Club-room, which was always 

 kept for this purpose ; and these gentlemen generally partook of 

 Mr. Corbet's hospitality in the course of the week. In honour of 

 the immortal Shakspeare, the room they lived in was called "The 

 Tempest." The walls were decorated with some sporting pictures, 

 and over the lire-place, enclosed in a glass-case, was the head of 

 the famous old fox, which in the year 1794 afforded an extraordinary 

 run before Mr. Corbet's hounds, having been found at Wolford 

 Wood, and killed near to Cheltenham, after a run of upwards of 

 twenty miles as the crow would fly. A few lines on the side of the 

 glass-case commemorate the circumstance, stating the names of 

 the chosen few who were in at the death ; amongst whom was 

 Mr. Corbet, "who tally-ho'd him a few minutes before he was 

 killed." 



Never having been what is called a straightforward rider, 

 Mr. Corbet's name appearing in so enviable a place at the end of 

 this brilliant run, when all but eight out of a field of two hundred 

 horsemen were defeated, has with some been a matter of surprise, 

 and with others has taken away the credit of the thing ; but with 

 those who have witnessed the extraordinary manner in which him- 

 self and some others would contrive to keep in what may be called 

 the waJcc of hounds, without ever taking a fence, and get up to 

 them at last, the surprise will cease : and particularly so, when they 

 consider the country (the Gloucestershire Hills) which this fox went 

 over was a light country ; and, mounted as Mr. Corbet always was, 

 on the best of horses, and the fences broken before he got to them, 

 it was by no means improbable but that a horse might live under his 

 light weight during the whole of this tremendous run ; whereas he 

 might not have gone half the distance, had he been ridden in thefroyit 

 for the first ten miles. All, however, that at this distance of time we 

 can say on the subject is, to repeat the words of the Bard of 



