82 THE BROCKLESBY HOUNDS. [1830 



and when young a very Lard rider to hounds. He had, as that excellent 

 writer, Nimrod, observes, a remarkably tine figure and the lightest 

 hands on a horse I ever saw, and his seat and attitude on a horse so 

 graceful, that when cjuite an old man, to ride behind him you would 

 have thought him a person of twenty-five. His manner, too, of putting 

 a horse to leap was certainly very good— indeed, as a sportsman and 

 horseman he had but few equals ; but, good as he was, he never would 

 acknowledge it. My father (his huntsman) had always far better hands 

 than he had, and he thought my father and grandfather the most 

 superior hands on horseback he ever saw. (If so, I am tolerably bred 

 on the sire's side.) But my father, I believe, was by far the neatest 

 horseman of the two. It was generally admitted that he was one of 

 the neatest and best horsemen that ever rode to hounds. So far as my 

 opinion goes, and we can all enjoy our own, he and his maMer were 

 decidedly the best horsemen and had the lightest hands I ever saw, 

 and I wish the bookman Nimrod had ever seen them, he would 

 have recorded them in the Sporting Magazine. At least, I have read 

 of the credit he has given horsemen w^ho were never fit to be named 

 the same day. However, I should have been glad to see so able a pen- 

 man as Nimrod record the merits of those two excellent sportsmen. 



Hounds was my father's object alone ; he was lost in any other 

 business, but in that I believe he was quite perfect. He was born for 

 the saddle, his form stout upwards, with bow'd legs, rather short in his 

 person, a very neat figure on horseback, with, as I before observed, a 

 remarkably light hand, in fact a perfect horseman, but in my opinion 

 not so elegant as his Lord. He was a most attentive man to hounds, 

 both in the kennel and in the field, and there were few, if any, better 

 judges. He had a beautiful voice, and in cheering hounds his manner 

 was rather peculiar to himself, his voice being strong and clear, and his 

 manner to hounds pleasant, and his judgment in casting hounds good — 

 at least, I think so, but I may be partial. "What one hears and sees in 

 one's youth is generally lasting. He was a very strong man in con- 

 stitution, and rode very hard to hounds all his life ; at seventy-two he 

 was bad to beat over a country, but at seventy-three he failed very 

 much, being very much troubled with the gravel ; at seventy-four he 

 hunted his last season, having been with these hounds fifty-nine years. 

 He began to whip-in to his father at fourteen and a half years old. He 

 never used a horn till seven or eight years before he gave up hunting, 

 and it only served to spoil his musical halloo, as he never could blow a 

 horn well. Perhaps the loss of his teeth, or the want of an earlier 

 application, might be the excuse (but few, very few, can blow a horn 

 well), though they are a great deal too much used in the field at this 

 time. This is my opinion ; perhaps I am wrong. 



The very celebrated painter, Mr. Stubbs, took a likeness of my 

 father and grandfather ; but though he got a good likeness, I believe, 

 of my grandfather, it never could have been a faithful one of my father. 



