A NOBLE FENCER. 251 



sixpence for it. I certainly produced a noise some- 

 thing between blowing down a key and a penny- 

 trumpet, but I never progressed a bit nearer the 

 mellifluous notes of the nightingale. 



A nobleman, whose name it is unnecessary to men- 

 tion, many years since was so pleased by an exhibition 

 of Punch and Judy that he actually bought the stand, 

 Punch, Judy, dog, devil, and all, and sent them to 

 his country seat : he forgot, however, to buy the man ! 

 In something like his lordship's error would some 

 men be whom I have seen ride after (certainly not with) 

 hounds, if, when seeing Tom Smith in his palmy days 

 sail away on his best nag, they had bought him. 

 There can be no doubt that every man who hunts or 

 rides for his amusement has a right to ride as he 

 pleases, and the sort of horse that best suits him. A 

 perfect Leicestershire hunter will please all perfect 

 Leicestershire riders ; but many men have very pecu- 

 liar notions of the merits of hunters. 



I knew a nobleman who hunted in Essex, whom 

 no one ever saw or suspected of riding over a com- 

 mon wattled hurdle or a ditch as wide as a potato 

 trench; yet he gave long prices for his horses, and 

 had certainly a lot of the best leapers I ever saw 

 a qualification to him, odd as it may appear, quite 

 indispensable. The fact was, his lordship was a 

 particularly active man, and in his own person 

 one of the best and most determined fencers in 

 England: nothing was too big or too awkward for 

 him : he would jump, creep, or bore through or over 

 anything, and he and his horse went as straight as 

 birds. The way they did so was this : no man rode 

 harder than he did, and that over any sort of ground, 

 for of this he had no fear ; consequently he was always 



