I 



EEMINISCENCES OF A llUIsTSMAN. 91 



communication with the secretary of the Oakley Club, 

 Mr. Samuel Whitbread. With him I entered into 

 negotiations for a subscription of an annual thousand 

 pounds for two seasons ; but on referring that sum to 

 Colonel Berkeley, he thought it too little for four days 

 a week, and I applied to Mr. Whitbread for more. 

 He met this application by an assertion, " that the 

 Club paid the earth-stopping and feed the keepers ;" 

 and on re-consulting Colonel Berkeley, and from my 

 own knowledge of his country, I deemed that, in all 

 probability, the earth-stopping would amount to three 

 or four hundred a year more, so, on that supposition., 

 I took the country. There was hut one ''^ earth'' in 

 the country^ that I could find, that needed an earth- 

 stopper^ and I should say that the sum of five shil- 

 lings, and a dinner to sundry gamekeepers, was all 

 that the Club was called on to disburse : that earth at 

 Chillington I effectually effaced. The foxes through- 

 out the country were " stump-bred," and all the 

 better for it. 



I was scarce thirty years of age when I succeeded 

 to the Bedfordshire country, and the hunting the 

 fox, as a huntsman, was so novel to me, and the 

 distance from London, fifty miles, so delightful, that 

 like a man who had been confined to a crowded city, 

 I longed for wilder scenes and a wilder game, and 

 rejoiced in my first visit to the shire. The good 

 Swan Inn, then kept by that able functionary, Mr. 

 Hio-orins, a name with which that vicinity abounds, 

 probably the same as all others, received me, and I 

 proceeded to look out for a residence. While in 

 search of a house I was attacked by the measles, and 

 confined to my bed at the inn, but the kind as 

 well as clever attentions of my medical adviser, Mr. 



