224 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



the eye, which shows how his heart and soul are absorbed 

 in the sport. 



"We had a fine run yesterday, from a cover called 

 Gravenhill, which, being within such easy reach of Oxford, 

 produced a good show of tyros, as you and I may now call 

 those of the cap and gown who have a taste for hunting. 

 The fox crossed the brook at starting, and several of them 

 got into it, as usually is the case, for you know it is a 

 teazer. I followed Peyton, and got well over on Achilles, 

 who, you know, is capital at water. I stuck to him 

 throughout the whole run, and towards the end of it 

 the following epigrammatic sentences were pleasantly ex- 

 changed between us : ' More willow-trees, Sir Henry,' 

 said I ; ' another brook, I suppose ? ' 'Go along,' replied 

 this fine horseman, 'and don't stop to look at it.' We 

 both got well over, and had the best of it to the end of 

 a fine run, and over a fine country. But, talking of 

 brooks, there is a proper teazer in the Banbury country, 

 no less than the Charwell, which, as you know, is navigable 

 far above Oxford. It gets less and less as you approach 

 Northamptonshire, and is jumpable in places in the 

 Chipping Warden country. I tried it the other day, on 

 the General, but, although he landed me, he fell back, 

 and had a narrow escape from drowning. ' The Charwell 

 was never leaped,' said Griff Lloyd to me. ' Pardon me,' 

 said I, ' it has been leaped this day, and I will ride at it 

 again, if it comes in my way.' Let me know what you 

 have been doing in your country. Those Roodings foxes 

 are, I believe, proverbially stout, and I am informed there 

 is no better sportsman than Mr. Charles Newman, the 

 master of the hounds with which you hunt. One day 

 or another I hope I may see him. 



"I have given up Melton for this year indeed, until 

 finances increase. Racing, also, I have promised my 

 uncle to think no more about for the present at least ; 

 so the hunters, the gun, and the fishing - rod, must 

 furnish the out-a-door amusement ; the cook, the butler, 

 and the young ladies, with a peep, now and then, into 

 the classics (for I will not give them up), the pleasures 

 within the walls, secondary, I admit, to the others ; for 



No sport to the chase can compare, 



So manly the pleasure it yields ; 

 How sweet, how refreshing that air 



Inhaled in the woods and the fields ! 



