130 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



evenings with him in society, I may be allowed to pass some opinion 

 on him as a sportsman, a companion, and a gentleman. 



For the first of the honourable qualifications, nature has endowed 

 Mr. Combe with one very great requisite for excellence, and that is, 

 an activity of mind and body which appear to have no bounds. Of 

 a robust frame, composed chiefly of muscle, he is quite in the form 

 for hard work, and no exercise fatigues him. He is said to travel 

 more miles after his hounds than any other man in England, Mr. 

 Osbaldeston excepted ; and either before or after hunting mile-stones 

 are no object with him. When by night, he of course travels in his 

 carriage ; but at other times he is remarkable for getting across a 

 country in his gig, in which he performs great distances in a short 

 space of time, by availing himself of relays of horses. Over a 

 country also, Mr. Combe is always in his place, and is allowed to 

 be a good judge of hunting, which indeed his experience in, and his 

 devotion to, the sport cannot fail to have made him. In the field he 

 is like most other masters of hounds — in high good humour when 

 things go prosperously ; that is to say, when he finds a fox, has a 

 good scent, and kills after a good run ; and he bears adversity full 

 as well as the rest of them. Both himself and Mr. Marjoribanks 

 are, I understand, very popular in their new country, and doubtless 

 will continue to be so. They are kind and obliging to everybody ; 

 and, as managers of fox-hounds, one very good quality attends them, 

 tliey have pretty good accounts at their bankers! 



Mr. Combe is as straight-forward in the evening as he is in the 

 morning ; he is one of the best companions I ever sat down with in 

 my life, full of animation and anecdote, and certainly not belonging 

 to that class of beings, who, old Horace tells us, are only sent into 

 this world to consume the fruits thereof; for he is a most active 

 member of society in every sense of the word. 



There is no peculiar distinctive character in the Old Berkeley 

 pack, which no doubt is to be attributed to Tom Oldaker not having 

 bred hounds for many years past, but trusted to drafts to keep up 

 his kennel. His son, however, is pursuing a different plan : he will 

 soon find the benefit of it ; and doubtless some excellent milk- walks 

 will be found in the fine dairy districts of Berkshire and Wiltshire. 

 Mr. Combe has lately added to his kennel by purchasing Sir Jacob 



