40 THE HUNTING FIELD 



that great sporting luminary, without whose book we 

 " little goes " would get badly on, thus " endeavours," 

 as he says, to describe what a good Huntsman ought 

 to be. "He should," says he, "be young, strong, 

 active, bold, and enterprising ; fond of the diversion, 

 and indefatigable in the pursuit of it ; he should be 

 sensible and good-tempered ; he ought also to be 

 sober ; he should be exact, civil, and cleanly ; he 

 should be a good horseman and a good groom ; his 

 voice should be strong and clear ; and he should have 

 an eye so quick as to perceive which of the hounds 

 carries the scent, when all are running ; and should 

 have so excellent an ear as always to distinguish the 

 foremost hounds when he does not see them ; he 

 should be quiet, patient, and without conceit. Such 

 are the excellencies which constitute a good hunts- 

 man : he should not, however, be too fond of display- 

 ing them, till necessity calls them forth. He should 

 let his hounds alone, whilst they can hunt, and he 

 should have genius to assist them when they cannot.''^ 



We think Mr. Beckford has left but little unsaid in 

 his catalogue of qualifications, though many of them 

 hinge on the first one, that of "youth." Doubtless, 

 perpetual evergreenism is a most desirable thing, and 

 in engaging a Huntsman, perhaps a Master of Hounds 

 would hesitate ere he took one in the decline of life; 

 but, still, something! should be allowed for experience, 

 and a INIaster should bear in mind the many remarkable 

 men we have seen, some of whom combatted not only 

 with age but with weight. 



WTio can forget jolly old Roffey, that Surrey trump, 

 or Stephen Goodall, in Oxfordshire, men who were 

 loads for dray horses ; or, in point of years, old Ben 

 Jennings, in Dorsetshire, with his silvery locks ; or 

 Will Neverd, Mr. Warde's old Huntsman, who took 

 a fresh place at seventy ; or old Tom Rose, the late 

 Duke of Grafton's Huntsman, who hunted the hounds 

 till near eighty ; or Winter, with Mr. Lambton ; or 



