354 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



heart and soul are in the pursuit. I will give you a 

 little specimen of his style, in recording the sport of the 

 first day on which I was out with his pack. Speaking 

 of those of his field who went well in the brilliant run 

 we had, of an hour and forty minutes, he says ' I cannot 

 omit to mention that the Rev. Mr. John Morton shone 

 as conspicuously on his grey mare as he always does in 

 the pulpit.' Then, speaking of myself, his Lordship has 

 thus described me : ' A young gentleman by the name 

 of Raby, a friend of my eldest son, who made his ac- 

 quaintance at Melton, was out with us this day, and rode 

 well to my hounds ; he appears to have an old head upon 

 young shoulders, and I prophesy that he will, some day 

 or another, make a distinguished sportsman.' 



" His Lordship did not show me what he had written ; 

 but as we like to hear what is thought of us by people 

 whose opinion is worth having, I took a peep into the 

 book next morning, and was of course flattered by the 

 handsome mention made of me. I certainly never rode 

 better to hounds than I did that day over a cramped and 

 difficult country, but I chanced to ride Achilles, who is 

 up to all sorts of trap. There was, however, one fence 

 which I did not attempt, although many of the Yorkshire 

 horses did not appear to regard it ; this was a stile in the 

 shape of the letter V, consequently without a top bar to 

 guide the eye of a horse as to how high he is to leap. 

 One, not accustomed to this sort of fence, would be in- 

 duced to leap through it, in which case he most likely 

 would be caught. 



"You will expect that I shall say something of the 

 hounds. They are divided into two packs, the large and 

 the small one. The large hounds are noble animals, and 

 good hunters ; but and I saw both packs at work, and 

 in difficulties I gave the preference to the small ones, 

 which appeared more handy and quicker. It is alto- 

 gether, however, a splendid and truly sportsmanlike 

 establishment." 



The summer succeeding the period which we have now 

 been detailing the operations of, having been passed in 

 a way, for the most part, to the full satisfaction of our 

 hero namely, in the enjoyment of the London season 

 up to a certain period, a trip to Brighton, a visit to his 

 friend Hargrave, Epsom and Ascot races, 'Bibury Club 

 meeting, together with his " parliamentary diities " 



