THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 195 



at his seat in Cheshire, thirteen hunters took their 

 departure for Melton ; and on his observing that ' it must 

 be a difficult matter to find such a lot : ' ' Not at all,' 

 replied Cholmondeley, ' the difficulty is in finding the 

 money to pay for them.' 



" Further particulars of what I saw to-day must remain 

 till we meet. I shall only add that, although the general 

 condition of the hunters here is very good, it does not 

 equal that of Lord Sefton's stud ; and I have told 

 Pritchard who of course growled on hearing it that no 

 hunter of mine should ever again have a summer's run at 

 grass. Believe me, dear Inkleton, truly yours, 



"FRANCIS RABY. 



" P.S. I hope your stable continues right, and that 

 you will come here soon. Depend upon it, it is the place 

 for sport. In fact, one of the flyers here says not that I 

 agree with him ' riding to cover over this country is 

 better than riding to hounds over most others.' F. R." 



The next appearance of our young sportsman with 

 hounds, was with those of the Duke of Rutland at one of 

 their most favourite fixtures, and where, as is usual in 

 such cases, most of the leading characters of the three 

 adjoining hunts met together. The scene, like that at 

 Cream Lodge, was one of the most cheering and soul- 

 stirring description to a person of his age and experience, 

 and tended to enhance greatly his opinion of Melton as 

 a domicile for a hunting man. Then there was a character 

 at the head of his Grace's hunting establishment who was 

 an object of much interest, and especially so with young 

 sportsmen, inasmuch as he was, at that period, what may 

 be called the only one in his calling with anything like 

 equal pretensions ; namely, to unite the gentleman with 

 the huntsman, combining the duties of the servant withal. 

 This was the far-famed Shaw, who then hunted the Duke 

 of Rutland's hounds, and who, for what may be called 

 " style" in every department and movement of his calling, 

 was the most celebrated huntsman of the day. All this, 

 indeed, was visible to Frank Raby previously to the 

 hounds throwing off ; for, instead of seeing him, where he 

 looked for him, in the middle of his pack, as they stood 

 under the shelter of a fence, awaiting the appointed hour, 

 he observed him coming along on his cover-hack, at the 



