334 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



It would be presumptuous in me to give an opinion of the 

 Badsworth pack after so short an acquaintance, and this with only 

 part of them ; but what I saw did not very much captivate my 

 sight. I thought them rather coarse, and wanting that airy form 

 and peculiar scale which characterize the high-bred fox-hound of the 

 present day. Modish and Roman attracted my notice ; and on 

 looking at the list I find they have bred from Roman, although they 

 have very little of their own blood on the sire's side. Modish is 

 neat, but of too close a frame to please my eye. I believe she is 

 dam of the York Twister. The pack is small, consisting of only 

 forty couples. 



Of their country I can say nothing, for I saw nothing. Jack 

 Richards looked iincommonly well and sportsmanlike, but is a good 

 deal heavier than when I saw him swim the Thame in Staffordshire, 

 when whipping-in to Sir Bellingham Graham, by whom he was 

 brought up ; and I used to think him an excellent whipper-in when 

 in his service. Jack Chapel — another of Sir Bellingham's pupils — 

 whips in to Richards, and a very clever fellow he is ; perhaps as 

 fine a horseman as ever sate in a saddle. 



Saturday, 31st. — Set out to meet Lord Harewood's hounds, which 

 met twelve miles from Ferrybridge. When I had proceeded about a 

 mile on my road, I found the weather so boisterous that any chance 

 of sport was at an end ; and, having sent some horses to Melton 

 Mowbray, turned right about, put myself on the box of the 

 Edinburgh mail, and got to Grantham by dinner. I learnt after- 

 wards that I had acted wisely ; for the day, the country, and 

 everything was against sport ; and those who reached the covert 

 soon made the best of their way home again. 



I was, however, disappointed in not seeing Lord Harewood's 

 hounds. It is an old-established pack, and, of course, there is no 

 want of the means to do the thing well ; and money is almost a 

 si7ie qua non in fox-hunting. A strange circumstance happened last 

 season with these hounds. Their huntsman imprudently capped 

 them into a very rapid mill-stream, and three or four couples were 

 drowned. A young gentleman, named Markham, gallantly plunged 

 in to their assistance, and very narrowly escaped their fate. He 

 succeeded in saving one of them. 



