:;70 RIDING TO HOUNDS 



ill Honie ireedoiii uf speech ; and certainly his Loixlship must he 

 allowed to possess a most happy talent of quizziniu; what, in the 

 phrase of the day, is called " a slow top."* x\s a sportsman, how- 

 ever, the name of Lord Forester will always stand pre-eminent in 

 the field ; and in private life he is a very friendly man, and has ever 

 adhered to those principles of honour and integrity which characterize 

 the gentleman. 



Incoi'porated as it were with the name of " Forester," in tine 

 Sporting World, for these last thirty years, has heen the name of 

 " Cholmondeley." The strongest friendship has existed between 

 them from very early life, and when we heard of the one, we 

 generally heard of the other ; and it is hard to say which of them 

 has given most eclat to Leicestershire fox-hunting. As a rider to 

 hounds, though a brilliant one, the latter always gave way to the 

 former, who must be considered as the chain'pion of 1 lis day ; but in 

 elegant manners, and in the accomplishments of a gentleman, he 

 yields to no one. These gallant sportsmen might be classically 

 termed the Castor and Pollux of their day ; and had they lived in 

 tlie time of Hercules, they would have borne away his lionours at 

 the Olympic. As it is, however, they have been rewarded by their 

 Sovereign, by being raised to the Patrician order. Whether they 

 would have been so honoured had they not been so conspicuous in 

 the field, it is not in my power to determine ; but certain it is, that 

 though Lord Forester may sound well enough, Lord Delamere is a 

 bad exchange for Thomas Cholmondeley, Esq., of Vale-Eoyal, M.P. 

 for the county. The one reminds us of " olden times ; " the other is 

 to be heard of nowhere but in the third volume of a four-and- 

 sixpenny novel, " by a Lady." 



The way to heaven was once so easy, that, if i recollect right, Juvenal 

 makes Atlas complain that his shoulders ached with the load of gods 

 he had to carry ; and if this were the case now, he who could beat 



* A "alow Lop"' i.s one who is sc uut'ortunate as to aijpuar by a covert's side 

 within twenty miles of Melton Mowbray under any of the following circum- 

 stances : — " With a front to his bridle, or with a martingal ; on a country-made 

 saddle, with nobs on his stirrujis ; with a saddle cloth : in a straight-cut coat ; 

 in leather breeches or military spurs. It is deemed impossihlv that such a man 

 can '' do the thing." 



