THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 221 



himself over, escaped all their mouths ; and bade them, 

 for the present, good night. As may be supposed, there 

 was no stopping the pack with a fox so near to them as 

 this was ; and away they went in the dark, through 

 several strong covers, without anyone being able to follow 

 them, many not returning to the kennel until the next 

 morning. 



The name of Raby, added to some little reputation our 

 hero had already gained in the hunting world, was a 

 passport sufficient to introduce him into the best society 

 of this part of Oxfordshire. Neither could he have fixed 

 on a better place, in some respects, to have made what 

 might be called his debut in the hunting world, with a 

 perfectly organized establishment, and with a view to 

 future proceedings. In the first place, that part of 

 Oxfordshire called the Bicester country is one in which a 

 man attains useful lessons on riding to hounds, inasmuch 

 as, from the depth of its soil, the strength of its fences, 

 and its numerous brooks, it is by no means one that can 

 be trifled with ; on the contrary, it requires a good horse- 

 man, on a good horse, to be enabled to live well over it 

 with hounds. In the next, he reaped the benefit of good 

 example in some of the conspicuous members of the 

 Mostyn Hunt, at that period comprising some of the first 

 horsemen of the age. For example, the present Earl of 

 Jersey, then Lord Villiers, would often be seen at the 

 cover side, previously to his removing his stud to Melton 

 for the season : Sir Henry Peyton was then in his prime, 

 and, taking a season throughout, was not to be beaten by 

 any man when on Watchmaker especially, on whom he 

 took a leap, of which a drawing was made, and a plate from 

 it, in the " Sporting Magazine." It was a stile, with a 

 brook on the landing side, over which was a long foot- 

 bridge, all of which he cleared, and stopped the whole 

 field. The late Mr. Harrison, of Shelswell, a few miles 

 from Bicester, was also a beautiful horseman, and had a 

 stable of capital horses, no price stopping him. The 

 Lloyds (brothers) were likewise good, the elder (the 

 Baronet) especially at water. The celebrated Mr. Davey 

 would also occasionally be seen with these hounds on the 

 Northamptonshire side of the country, over which, being 

 the strongest almost in England, he was much given to 

 shine. To prepare him for Billesden Coplow, too, the 

 quickness of Shaw in his saddle, when hounds ran hard, 



