182 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



hide his head again, and a fine country, in some directions, before 

 him. To this is to be added, there are several parts of the Hey- 

 thorpe grounds very favourable for seeing hounds hunt ; and this 

 day we had a great treat in riding on one side of a glen which skirts 

 the park, whilst the hounds were running their fox on the other, 

 with the whole pack in view. I was particularly struck with the 

 number of clever horses I saw at Heythorpe, though the field was 

 not a large one. 



I thence proceeded into Warwickshire, and again took up my abode 

 at Alscot Park, the seat of Mr. West, which was my head-quarters 

 during my stay in that county. 



On the 10th I met the Warwickshire hounds at Compton Verney, 

 the seat of Lord Willoughby — esteemed one of their best fixtures. 

 We found instantly, and ran him more than half an hour, with only 

 one trifling check. Two peculiarities attended this burst. The pace 

 the hounds went at was tremendous, but from the short and curling 

 manner in which the fox ran — almost equal to that of a hare on her 

 foil — it was most difficult to keep with them. The hardest riders 

 were bafiled, and it more than once happened that the last became 

 first, and the first nearly last. There was, however, what the Irish- 

 men call some "wicked riding" on this day — at least every other 

 fence being timber, with a good yawning Squire-trap on one side or 

 the other. In spite of the useful practice of tying on the hat, two 

 men were going well bare-headed, viz. Mr. Meyrick (who always 

 goes well), and an Irish gentleman named Lee, who was staying at 

 Leamington. I saw Mr. Lee charging some very rough places, in 

 a line of his own, apparently quite regardless of consequences.* He 

 rode a good sort of Irish horse, that should not have been allowed 



* Nothing short of the ardour of the chase would induce a man to be torn, 

 as it were, through a strong black-thorn fence at the rate of twelve miles an 

 hour, without anything to protect his head and face. Consequences, however, 

 are out of sight in these happy moments, when things are going well and the 

 music tingling in the ear. The following is no bad exemplar : One day last 

 season. Bob Oldaker, whipper-in to the Old Berkeley fox-hounds, was riding at 

 a fence, determined to catch his hounds. " Take care what you are at. Bob ! " 

 said a gentleman to him, "there is a hell of a place on the other side." — 

 " Thank ye, Sir," replied Bob ; " but a ditch or a coal-pit is all one to me ; " 

 and he never turned his head. 



