Tom Firr. 



THE QUORN AT KIRBY GATE 33 



blood of the Ouorn Alfred, who was undeniably 

 great. He was, no doubt, very highly bred — a 

 wondrously handsome hound ; moreover, his stock 

 were so good in many kennels that the only ques- 

 tion is, did he fit a better ancestry than Mr. Garth's 

 Painter out of Affable by the Badminton 

 Forester ? — though it was good enough as 

 it stood." Other packs Firr went to for 

 blood were the Belvoir, the Warwick- 

 shire, Brocklesby, and Oakley. 



Tom Firr, the finished horseman, com- 

 bined the quaUties of nerve, hands, and 

 seat in a remarkable degree. The quiet- 

 est of riders, jumping fences appeared to 

 be only an immaterial detail of the chase. 

 Never in a hurry, he always seemed to 

 arrive at the right spot in a fence, over 

 which he glided without any apparent effort. 

 Riding with a rather longer stirrup leather than 

 is the fashion to-day, he was always in harmony 

 with his horse, and never lost his temper. Such 

 was the man, chosen as a model for the rising 

 generation — " Tom Firr, the pink and pattern of 

 his calling." 



Other huntsmen we have seen leading the Quorn 

 battalions on a Kirby Gate day were Walter Kyte, 

 tremendous over a country, and Tom Bishopp, a 

 very smart servant of the chase, whose experience 

 and perfect manners place him in the front rank 

 of his calling. Latterly George Leaf comes on the 

 scene, one of the rising stars, who learnt something 

 of his art when whipper-in under Ben Capell, and 

 the Belvoir huntsman owns to having been in- 

 fluenced by Tom Firr, whom he served under in his 

 early career at Quorn ; so that the spirit of the 

 great master of the noble science is still there to 



c 



