HUNTING TOURS. 69 



years and a half, leaving an infant son not 

 twelve months old. The country being vacant, 

 and the hounds in the market, a fine opening 

 was in perspective for an enterprising spirit 

 to exercise his talent ; and truly enterprising 

 was the candidate for fame. It was Mr. 

 Osbaldeston. The introduction of his name 

 is suggestive of a little digression, for the 

 purpose of giving a sketch, in a collected 

 form, of some of his doings on behalf of fox- 

 hunting, irrespective of what appears in 

 other pages, and I conceive no portion of 

 these " Tours " can be so applicable to the 

 purpose as that which treats of the Burton 

 Country, where he first entered the list as 

 M. F. H. I must, however, confine myself 

 to incidents appertaining exclusively to fox- 

 hunting, for were I to attempt an epitomised 

 version of his other exploits, this volume 

 would be inadequate to the purpose. 



When only twenty years of age, in the 

 year 1807, the young Squire commenced 

 with a pack of the Sussex blue mottled 

 harriers, for which, having studied Beckford, 

 he built kennels on his own property, at 

 Hutton Bushell, in Yorkshire. With their 

 pottering style of proceedings and slow pro- 



