THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 7 



place, although an elegant horseman, and an excellent 

 judge of the animal, he was not a strong-nerved man over 

 a country. He was shy of timber and wide brooks, and, 

 therefore, judiciously avoided entering into a pursuit in 

 which he was aware he could not shine. Next, he was 

 bred up a hare-hunter, and considered that the act of 

 confining his attention to one sort of hunting would be 

 the surest means of perpetuating the fame of his father's 

 kennel, if not of increasing it: Thirdly, he had numerous 

 duties to perform as a magistrate, and otherwise, exclusive 

 of those of his own domestic station, which were less inter- 

 rupted by the gentler pursuit of the hare ; but when the 

 foxhounds appeared in his neighbourhood, he would often 

 see them find their fox, and they were nearly certain to 

 do so in any of his own covers. Had a keeper of his 

 levelled his gun at a fox, or designedly caught him in a 

 trap, he would have been discharged on the morrow, as 

 having committed a flagrant disobedience of orders. 



Neither was Mr. Eaby a racing man. To speak the 

 truth, although qiiiet, even to diffidence, in his deportment, 

 there was in his nature an ambition to excel in what he 

 attempted. His estate was the best conditioned in his 

 county ; his harriers were, perhaps, the best of that day 

 in England ; his pointers and setting dogs for he used 

 the latter to the net were perfect of their kind ; and his 

 breed of spaniels was sought after by every sportsman who 

 had heard of it. But he was aware that, had he sought 

 for it, excellence on the turf was out of his reach. Even 

 the legitimate means of insuring success, as the experience 

 of many of his friends had convinced him, were doubtful ; 

 the illegitimate ones he would not have availed himself of, 

 if presented to him. 



There is one part of Mr. Baby's conduct as a sportsman 

 of which notice should not, on any account, be omitted, 

 inasmuch as it affords an example highly worthy of 

 imitation by all whose means give them the power. I 

 allude to the generous care he took of his worn-out 

 hunters and coach-horses, in lieu of the too common 

 practice of selling them for trifling sums, and exposing 

 them to severe labour when least able to endure it. He 

 had, after the manner of a master of foxhounds of the 

 present day, 1 a range of pastures sacred to the repose of 

 these pensioners on his bounty, in which they enjoyed 

 1 The Viscount Kelburne. 



