42 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



a bet in the ring at Newmarket, and lost it, he was suddenly accosted 

 by the winner, and asked for the money, which had the usual effect 

 on the optic. On the Greek looking into his face, and observing 

 his perfect vision, he apologized for his mistake, and rode away, 

 observing, that "the gentleman he had betted with was a one-eyed 

 one." 



Mr. Stubbs having been a great frequenter of race-courses, his 

 time, with the help of such other diversions as that season affords — 

 almost all of which he partook of — was tolerably well occupied in 

 the summer ; but in a long frost in the winter, he may be said to 

 have laboured heavily under that tadium vitce, which has been 

 supposed so particularly to attach itself to us " unlearned gentlemen 

 on a rainy day." During this time, he exhibited a most voracious 

 appetite for novels, many volumes of which he would devour in a 

 day, and would occasionally be seen returning them, by baskets full, 

 to the two circulating libraries in the town. He was often heard 

 to lament that there was not an Act of Parliament to enable all 

 Sundays in the winter to fall together in a frost, which, he said, 

 would strengthen the spirit of devotion by their repetition, without 

 interfering with fox-hunting when the weather was open. After a 

 good day's sport, he always took some tea, and went to bed as soon 

 as he got home, and towards nine or ten o'clock he would get up 

 and enjoy the society of his family. His method of travelling was 

 equally singular. He would go almost incredible distances in a day, 

 in his gig, with relays of horses on the road— setting off at two 

 o'clock in the morning, and his refreshment nothing but tea and 

 cold meat on the journey. 



Whatever may have been his other recreations, Mr. Stubbs might 

 be said to have lived for fox-hunting. The pleasure he took in it 

 was derived from the purest source — from the real love of finding, 

 hunting, and killing a fox ; from the hound that spoke to him on the 

 drag, to the worrying him in the next country hut one; whither, 

 sooner or later, he was certain to be, let the distance be ever so great, 

 provided his horse could carry him so far, though, perhaps, without 

 having seen a hound from one end of the run to the other. The 

 animating description, however, he would give of such a chase, 

 which he had seen bvat "in his mind's eye," was highly amusing to 



