162 NIMRODS HUNTING TOUR 



There are none of the " certaminca divitiarum," no ostentatious 

 display at the table of the Old Club, but everything as good as a 

 first-rate man-cook can produce, and the wine of the best quality. 

 Sir James Musgrave was absent, performing the duties of his 

 shrievalty for the county of Gloucester, whilst I was at Melton ; 

 but the well-known good fellowship of Mr. Maxse, and the never- 

 failing agreeableness of Mr. Moore (son to the late Archbishop of 

 Canterbury — nine years a member of this Club, and whose absence 

 this Club would not easily forget), give everything a relish. 



On one of the evenings which I spent at the Old Club, I had the 

 pleasure of meeting that paragon of sportsmen, Mr. John Musters. 

 I also met that Ajax of the high weights — Mr. Thomas Edge, of 

 Strelley Hall near Nottingham — who, w^hen riding the enormous 

 weight of twenty stone, was not to be beaten by any man in England 

 for twenty minutes in a quick thing over Leicestershire ; and who 

 is moreover — not always the case with very hard riders — a very 

 excellent sportsman. 



Were this gentleman's name Blunt instead of Edge, I should still 

 have pronovmced that edge to be keen which would take any man 

 into a Leicestershire field, determined to go with such fearful odds 

 against him ; and nothing but the very best of horse flesh could have 

 enabled him to enjoy even his short-lived pleasure. His two famous 

 horses, Eemus and Banker, I well remember by the extraordinary 

 circumstance of his refusing my Lord Middleton's offer for them of 

 two thousand two hundred guineas ; returning for answer — in words 

 that ought to be emblazoned on his tomb when he is no more — 

 that he liked his horses better than his Lordship's money. He had 

 ■another very remarkable hunter called Gayman, which, wonderful 

 to relate, he rode every Monday that hounds hunted in Leicester- 

 shire for nine seasons in succession. 



A singular anecdote respecting this horse was related to me by Mr. 

 Edge himself. He had him one day by the covert's side in Leicester- 

 shire, ptu'posing to ride him for the day, when Mr. Compton, of the 

 Manor House near Lyndhurst, who had two horses of his own in the 

 field at the time, went up to him and offered him fifty guineas to 

 ride Gayman the first fox — taking all chances of a run or no run — 

 which offer Mr. Edge refused. Mr. John Edge, brother to this 



