14 



THE WARWICKSHIRE HOUNDS. 



Mr. John Corbet 

 1791-1811. 



His Horse. 



His last days and 

 epitaph. 



would number more than a couple during the season. 

 As regards his horses, I have already mentioned that 

 they fully did credit to the hand that guided them. A 

 high compliment to Barrow is to be found in the 

 remark made by his first master, Mr. Childe. Barrow, 

 he said, was the only servant he ever had or knew, fit 

 to trust with his own horses mouths, having so gentle 

 and good a hand on his bridle. By his own horses 

 he meant, of course, those he himself rode. Mr. 

 Corbet might well feel, then, that he had a huntsman 

 who would be worthy of the good horses he might buy 

 him, and the three chestnuts Barrow rode were 

 splendid animals and equal to far more than his weight, 

 which with his clothes was not ten stone. Perhaps the 

 best of them, by King Fergus, was one which would 

 have killed him if he had thrown him to the ground. 

 But he never did — his rider took good care of that. It 

 is not at all unlikely that the knowledge of his horse's 

 power and his own risk, helped to make him hia 

 favourite, for such he was always considered. Two 

 other horses he rode were a grey, a flier, and a black 

 gelding, Joe Andrews, which was as stout as steel. 



His last days were spent with Mr. Corbet's harriers 

 at Sundorne, by a fall with which he met his death." 

 After his death £1,400 was found in odd places about 

 his bedroom. His epitaph in Sundorne Parish 

 Churchyard is as follows : — 



Of this world's pleasure I have had uiy shsre ; 

 For few the sorrows I was doomed to bear ; 

 How oft I have enjoyed the noble chase 

 Of hounds and foxes, each striving for the race ! 

 But the knell of death calls me away ; 

 So, sportsmen, farewell ! I must obey. 



