THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 197 



travelled over. And at what a pace it is travelled over 1 

 But you know all this better than I can tell you. I can 

 only say, it is too fast for me, at least, for my horses. I 

 stopped Gentleman, the first day with the Quorn, in little 

 more than twenty minutes ; Achilles is too slow ; ditto 

 Pantaloon ; l in fact, the General,' and Bowman 2 a right 

 good one are the only two at all fit for this country. Sly 

 stable will soon be stumped up, and I must either return 

 to the provincials, or purchase others. It is useless to be 

 here with only six horses, and four of those not up to the 

 mark. I overheard one of the fellows yesterday say ' I 

 think that young Raby would ride if he had the cattle, 

 but the present lot won't do. They tell me he'll be well 

 breeched one of these days, so it's his own fault if he don't 

 mend his stable.' I think so, too, Dauntley ; and I must 

 go to Moses before next hunting season that is to say, 

 if Mr. Darkin don't win the Oaks. Trueman gives me 

 hopes in his last letter ; he says ' Rouge is one of the best 

 goers of a young one he ever saw.' As he is so good a 

 judge, I think something of this. He says nothing of 

 Euphrosyne ; but if one of them can do the trick it's 

 enough. 



" Now for my opinion of what I have seen. I like the 

 Melton fellows much ' no nonsense about them,' as Jack 

 Bailey says ; and they are very civil indeed, kind to 

 me ! Of the hounds I should say this : The Quorn and 

 Lord Lonsdale's are the most business-like, but the 

 Duke's are, perhaps, the handsomest to the eye. They 

 certainly show much blood, as we say of horses. The 

 others are coarser in some of their points ; for example, 

 a hound in the Quorn called Guzman, which Raven told 

 me they breed much from, is coarse in his fore-quarters, 

 with what old Dick calls 'a chitterling shirt about his 

 neck.' I believe the term is, ' a little throating.' But 

 they all have good legs, and feet, and loins, at least as far 

 as I am a judge. The Duke's, with a good scent, are 

 called the fastest ; indeed, one day last week they ran 

 clean away from the horses, in a burst of twelve minutes 

 only one thorough-bred one being able to live with 

 them. Shaw confessed he was beat half a mile in four, 

 and over the finest part of the country for a splitter. 



1 The horse purchased at Tattersall's, together with Gentleman. 



2 The horse purchased at the recommendation of Sir John 

 Inkleton, and already spoken of. 



