HUNTING TOURS. 233 



Mr. Osbaldeston's appreciations were pecu- 

 liarly adapted to the tastes of those who 

 hunted with him in this country ; pace was 

 a sine qua non. To find a fox quickly, the 

 moment he broke covert, to get the hounds 

 away in a body close to his brush, and, with 

 anything approaching to a scent, to run into 

 his fox in thirty or forty minutes was the 

 summit of Mr. Osbaldeston's delight. When 

 a cast became imperative, a bold one was 

 his general custom. He either recovered his 

 fox without loss of time in a masterly and 

 most exciting manner, or he gave him up 

 and went to draw for another. The echo 

 of his cheering halloo still resounds in the 

 ears of his admiring companions, too few of 

 M'hom, alas ! are left to tell of his glorious 

 deeds. About the middle of the season, 

 1821, Mr. Osbaldeston exchanged countries 

 with Sir Bellingham Graham, who was 

 then hunting the Hambledon, in Hamp- 

 shire; but Sir Bellingham only retained the 

 Quorn one clear season afterwards, when Mr. 

 Osbaldeston returned and hunted it till he 

 removed into the Pytchley — an event which 

 created sincere regret to his Melton friends. 

 In the mystic art of breeding hounds he had 



