EARLY HISTORY OF THE HUNT. 29 



And if added to these you can muster a hand, 

 You may always retain the pack at command : 

 So you've only to wish, to prove my words good, 

 For an Easingwold fox, and old Conqueror's blood.'"' 



The name of another well-known sportsman, Colonel 

 Mellish, is also associated with the York and Ainsty 

 country, though no records are in existence which relate 

 the particular part of the country which he hunted. It 

 is particularly to be regretted that there is nothing 

 known of the sport that he showed, or the hounds that he 

 bred, for Colonel Mellish was one of those who did well 

 whatever he put his hand to. He was a scholar as well 

 as a sportsman, and many of the Peninsular War 

 despatches were from his pen. As a gentleman rider he 

 took high rank, and there were some good men amongst 

 his contemporaries, notably Mr. Osbaldeston. A good 

 soldier, a fine judge of racing and match-making, he was 

 also one of the boldest horsemen of his time, and in 

 Leicestershire, and in his native Yorkshire, he could hold 

 his own with the best of the light weio-hts, notwithstandine 

 that he always rode a good fourteen stone. He was 

 also eminent as a cattle breeder, and in everything he 

 touched showed remarkable talent, save that he was 

 an inveterate plunger, and the cards and the 'bones' 

 practically ruined him, or at any rate dissipated his 

 princely fortune to a great extent. How interesting 

 would an account of his experience as a master of hounds 

 have been from his own pen — a pen that was deemed by 

 Wellington worthy of writing his despatches. 



Some time between the years 181 5 and 18 18, the 

 exact date is not forthcoming, Sir Thomas Slingsby gave 



(i) Conqueror's blood, which was once, as the author beheves, reckoned the 

 first in the kingdom, and the repute in which an Easingwold fo.x was held, gave 

 occasion to the above sentiment. 



D 



