34 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



size, the old man observed, that, " to be sure, he is a little horse 

 to look at, but he is what you Oxford gentlemen calls multum in 



Whoever has been at school has heard of the Trojan w^ar, and 

 whoever has hunted in Warwickshire has heard of " the blood of 

 the Trojans," which was a standing toast in that country when Mr. 

 Corbet hunted it, and was always drunk after " The King " in the 

 Club-room at Stratford. The hero from whom these modern sons of 

 Ilion were descended was one of the best fox-lio^mds that ever 

 challenged on a fox, and whose blood has circulated through most 

 of the first kennels in the United Kingdom. He was bred by Mr. 

 Corbet, and got by Lord Spencer's Trueboy out of a bitch called 

 Tidings, purchased by Mr. C. at Tattersall's. 



Trojan was entered in 1782, and hunted nine seasons. He would 

 never look at a hare ; and would speak only to a fox, a marten cat, 

 or a pheasant. In his day, however, pheasants in Warwickshire 

 were not much thicker than foxes, so that this propensity was of 

 little consequence, for in chase he was as perfect as his nature could 

 make him. With the nose of a blood- hound, his pace was a killing 

 one ; and, as a proof of his powers in chase, Mr. Corbet has often 

 been heard to say, that he was the only hound he ever had who 

 could leap Chillington Park wall after a fox. 



It never having happened to me to see so striking an instance of 

 the superiority of one hound over the rest of the pack, I shall 

 devote a few lines to this interesting anecdote, and relate it, as I 

 had it, from one of the best sportsmen that ever rode over a country, 

 who was an eye-witness to the fact. 



It appears that Mr. Corbet's hounds found a very dark-coloured 

 fox in Chillington Park in Staffordshire, the seat of Mr. Giffard, 

 which had beaten them twice. The third time they found him, 

 Trojan leaped the park-wall after him ; but in consequence of the 

 rest of the pack not being able to follow him, old Caesar, as this 

 gallant fox was called, beat them again. The following season, 

 Trojan found this fox again nearly in the same place, and leaped 

 the wall close at his brush ; but from the cause before mentioned, 

 although he afforded a good run after the other hounds got round 

 to him, he heat them once more/ In short, in spite of old Trojan, 



