REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 55 



parsons, used to say, with much truth, that in a 

 straightforward burst of twenty-five minutes, while 

 the wind and powers of a horse lasted, the riders of 

 twenty years of age would beat the men of thirty, and 

 that the men of thirty would beat those of forty, and 

 so on. As a general assumption, this is perfectly 

 correct ; for in a burst of that description, each man 

 with a start, the choice of ground and quick eye to 

 the turn of hounds do not tell, but the spur and the 

 nerve do all. The late Mr. Charles Tollemache, who 

 belonged to my stag-hunt, so long as 1 kept it up, 

 never had any nerves for a start among a crowd in 

 my remembrance ; but on his splendid brown horse 

 Radical, the fastest horse I ever saw through dirt, 

 if he got an advantage, he would slip away like wild- 

 fire, and was very difficult to catch. He was an ex- 

 cellent judge of ground, had a quick eye to hounds, 

 and seemed to know by instinct the weakest place in 

 a fence, as well as the soundest land. Jealous of other 

 riders to any extent, in going through a gate, he 

 would shut it behind him, and " beg pardon " at the 

 same moment. The only time that I can remember 

 his really going well was when we ran from the plough 

 country across the Uxbridge road near Hayes, and 

 had had a deal to do before we got there. Tollemache 

 trotted the lanes all the first part of the run, the coun- 

 try deluged with water, and immensely heavy ; and 

 when the hounds pointed for the Harrow Vale, and 

 came down for the Yeading brook, then a bumper 

 above its brim, Tollemache, followed by Mr. Parker, 

 now Colonel Parker, then of the Life Guards, and a 

 beo:inner, showed in front without a hair turned on 

 Radical. I had never seen him before in the run, 

 and as he came out of some hidden lane, it seemed 



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