72 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



I deferred this pleasure to another opportunity. I was informed by 

 a very good sportsman, at whose house I took up my quarters, that 

 they are more powerful than his elder brother's, and more calculated 

 for a rough country. I hear Colonel Henry is a very bruising rider, 

 and being a light weight, and well mounted, is difficult to follow, and 

 hard to beat. His house and kennel are at Sladc-land, in the parish 

 of Carford, about four miles from Petworth. 



In the intermediate days with Colonel Wyndham, I attended the 

 Brookside Harriers, under the management of Mr. Harrison Carr. 

 There was a constant attendant on these hounds in the person of a 

 Eeverend Doctor of Divinity, whose venerable presence adds much 

 to the respectability of their field. The Doctor is not one of those 

 gloomy sectaries who think that man is only sent into this world to 

 mortify himself into condition for the next. His reading has in- 

 formed him, that " Christianity forbids no reasonable indulgences — 

 no innocent relaxations." — [Bisliop Porteus.) If life be the gift of 

 Heaven, it must be religion to enjoy it ; and, as has been so beauti- 

 fully told us, " the mind goes a great way towards praise and thanks- 

 giving when filled with gladness ; for such a disposition consecrates 

 every field and wood, and turns a morning ride into a morning 

 sacrifice." Milton makes even the devil pleased with the beauties of 

 nature ! 



By common analogy, the decline of life is associated with the 

 dreary scenes of winter. No wonder then that nothing should be 

 more delightful than a green old age ; and I confess I was not a 

 little pleased with the appearance of Dr. Hooker. Cicero says of 

 Catiline, that he lived with the old gravely, and with the young 

 pleasantly ; and this would apply to the Doctor. There is a natural 

 gaiety about him which is rare, but most agreeable, at his period of 

 life, and still more so when fighting against infirmity and pain. 

 Though only a water-drinker, he is a martyr to the gout ; but, when 

 lifted on his horse, he can ride him well, and even the young ones 

 cannot beat him over the Brighton Hills. 



In conversation with Dr. H., to whom I was introduced, I 

 observed, that he reminded me of the late (Honorable) Sam 

 Ongley, whom I had seen riding so hard with the Oakley hounds, 

 though severely afflicted with the gout ; when the Doctor told me, 



