MY FIRST SUBSCRIPTION HUNT. 33 



their fondness for the colour to some advantage, for 

 there were many very old hens in that cover past 

 breeding and changing to the " male" plumage, the 

 plumage of what is erroneously called the mule bird, 

 and they ^\-ould approach me so nearly in this dress 

 when I went to feed them, that I snared them all off 

 with a wire on a stick about six feet Ions:- 



I whipped in for some time to my brother More- 

 ton, assisted by the late Mr. Henry Wombwell, who 

 also wore the tawny coat, but when I married and 

 purchased a house near the park at Cranford, my 

 brother resigned the hounds to me, but continued to 

 whip in. I then formed a regular hunt, and main- 

 tained it with a subscription. When j\Ir. Wombwell 

 retired, I then kept one man in his place. By this 

 time my stable had some first-rate horses in it, com- 

 prising, though at different dates, Brutus, Jack- 

 o'-Lantern, Acteon, Ariel, Mason, Captain, Cassius, 

 and some others. Brutus and Jack were the best 

 horses I ever had, both bought of Mr, Elmore, with 

 whom I always dealt. Mason and Captain I bought 

 of Sir George Seymour ; he never kept but one 

 hunter at a time, and that was ever a good one. Lord 

 Alvanley purchased Whisgig of him. Tlian Whisgig, 

 Mason, and Captain there never were three better 

 horses. As to Brutus's fencing, there are those who 

 remember our running: a stao; throu2;h a breach in the 

 wall of Windsor Home Park, made by the heavy floods, 

 and my riding him over in succession all the timber 

 divisions that intersect the park. I was riding to take 

 the stag, and no one attempted to follow, save one 

 horse-dealer whose name I forget; he rode at one of the 

 fences, and caught a terrible fall, sufficient to prevent 



D 



