206 THE BROCKLESBY HOUNDS. 



Sir John Astley and Squire Corbett. 



The late Sir John Astley had a fancy more for "silk" 

 than " scarlet," and was also very fond of the gun ; but 

 he was a good sportsman, and there were always plenty 

 of foxes to be found in the Elsham Coverts. His connec- 

 tion with Lincolnshire is told in his own biography, but 

 the following anecdote might be amusing. In 1879 Sir 

 John backed himself against Lord Caledon to plough an 

 acre of land for £200, shoot fifty pigeons for <£200, and 

 to ride his horse Drumhead against Lord Caledon's 

 Briglia one mile and a half, at the Newmarket July 

 Meeting, for £500. The ploughing match never came off, 

 though the race did, and the respective jockeys went to 

 scale at 16 st. 6 lbs. and 16 st. respectively in 7-lb. 

 saddles. Briglia was made favourite, but Drumhead 

 got level with her about four hundred yards from home, 

 and won by three lengths. Sir John lost his next match 

 against Solomon, owners up, 16 st. each, through Drum- 

 head breaking down on the near fore leg. Drumhead was 

 once dosed with whiskey in order to make him run kindly, 

 and he took such a fancy to it that he followed his owner 

 all round the paddock, in hopes of another suck at the 

 bottle. 



Sir John's father-in-law, " Squire " Corbett, was a 

 great fox-hunter, however, but he was rather short- 

 sighted, and often got into difficulties in consequence. 

 He once started to thrash his horse under the impression 

 that it was bucking with him. He had been jumping 

 sheep-nets ! On another occasion he fancied that he had 

 been jumped on by some one riding a grey horse, so he 

 accused and abused every man riding a grey horse for 

 some time to come, believing that he should eventually 

 pick the right one ; Ijut in reality it was his own horse 



