THE PROVINCES. 



255 



as an historic personage quite on a par with the Dick Knights, 

 Stephen Goodalls, Tom Wingfields, and Tom Ranees of an 

 earlier day.^ His style of hunting was peculiar, and it may be 

 said of it as was said of Charles Payne's with the Pytchley, that 

 with anyone else it had been impossible. But w^ith him it was 

 marvellously effective. He was a great rider, and a very fair 

 cricketer, playing for eight seasons in the Sussex eleven in the 

 golden days of old Lillywhite. However, w^e must leave Jem's 

 biography to ' The Druid,' and get back to the country. Lord 

 Redesdale, who had been supreme for many seasons, had in 

 1855 to turn to sterner things. In 1851 he had been elected 

 Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords, and after 

 trying to combine the saddle and the senate for four seasons, 

 he found the work too hard, and made his choice for the latter. 

 Mr. Hall succeeded, and showed good sport for some years ; 

 then followed a committee again ; in 1865 Mr. K. W, Hall came 

 into office and remained there till 1873, when Mr. Albert Brassey 

 took the hounds, and keeps them to this day. In 1865 Tom 

 Hills, a nephew of the great Jem, donned the green plush 

 hvery of the hunt, but he had not his uncle's gifts ; and 

 after four seasons he gave w^ay to Stephen Goodall, who 

 carried the horn till Mr. Brassey promoted his first whip, 

 John Hasleton. The Heythrop country, w^hich is about twenty 

 miles in extent from east to west, and fifteen from north to 

 south, presents many varieties. The Cotswold uplands, on 

 the west and north-west, give a light galloping country, with 

 a very variable scent, which is best in wet weather, fenced 

 mostly with stone walls, formidable to look at, but easy enough 

 to surmount for a nag who knows the trick of them. They are 

 not solid, and there is never a ditch on either side, though you 

 may occasionally, if a stranger in the land and too adventurous, 

 find yourself descending into an old quarry. According to 

 ' Brooksby,' the mode of encompassing these obstacles adopted 

 by an old hunter is not comfortable. He 'will get so near 

 to a wall that he rises almost perpendicularly, and — imitatis 



' See Scott and Sebright, ch. v. 



