NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



his immense weight, was usually to be seen at all 

 meets of Sir Thomas's hounds. Griff Lloyd had a 

 wonderful appetite of his own, and John Weston 

 could well remember how the old parson used to relish 

 the pork-pies, home-brewed ale, sherry, and other 

 good things set forth at his father's table when hounds 

 met near. 



Although, in the fashion of those days, his father 

 ruled his family somewhat despotically, John Weston 

 was allowed a good deal of liberty in the way of sport. 

 The gun, so much loved by his father, he never much 

 took to, but of hunting and hunting-lore he never tired 

 to the day of his death. One of the first glimpses I re- 

 member of him — a good many years ago now — was as 

 he crashed through a tall fence on a well-bred chestnut, 

 and presently rushed in close pursuit of the flying pack. 

 Hunting, indeed, he loved above all other pastimes ; 

 he had followed hounds since 1830, and had memories 

 of many celebrated masters : Sir Thomas Mostyn, Sir 

 Charles Knightley, Old Squire Drake, his son, the 

 well-known *'Tom" Drake, George Payne, Squire 

 Osbaldeston, Anstruther Thomson, and many others, 

 who flourished long years before agricultural de- 

 pression and wire fencing were dreamed of. He had 

 a first-rate seat on a horse, and excellent hands, and 

 his thin, upright figure, handsome fresh-coloured face, 

 and snow-white hair and beard were familiar in the 

 hunting-field until but a year or two before he died. 



When his own father died, towards 1845 — his mother 

 had died many years before — the patrimony was sold 

 and the proceeds divided among the five or six 

 surviving children. I suppose John Weston's share 

 amounted to something between ^^^3,000 and ;^4,ooo — 

 a very sufficient sum of money on which to start and 

 stock a farm. 



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