38 THE HUNTING FIELD 



book we " little goes " would get badly on, thus " endeavours," 

 as he says, to describe what a good Huntsman ought to be. 

 "He should," says he, "be young, strong, active, bold, and 

 enterprising ; fond of the diversion, and indefatigable in the 

 pursuit of it ; he should be sensible and good-tempered ; he 

 ought also to be sober ; he should be exact, civil, and cleanly ; 

 he should be a good horseman and a good groom ; his voice 

 should be strong and clear ; and he should have an eye so 

 quick as to perceive which of the hounds carries the scent, 

 when all are running ; and should have so excellent an ear as 

 always to distinguish the foremost hounds when he does not 

 see them ; he should be quiet, patient, and without conceit. 

 Such are the excellencies which constitute a good huntsman ; 

 he should not, however, be too fond of displaying them, till 

 necessity calls them forth. He should let his hounds alone, 

 whilst they can hunt, and he should have genius to assist them 

 wlicn they cainwt." 



We think Mr. Beckford has left but little unsaid in his 

 catalogue of qualifications, though many of them hinge on the 

 first one, that of " youth." Doubtless, perpetual evergreenism 

 is a most desirable thing, and in engaging a Huntsman, 

 perhaps a Master of Hounds would hesitate ere he took one in 

 the decline of life ; but, still, something should be allowed for 

 experience, and a Master should bear in mind the many 

 remarkable men we have seen, some of whom combatted not 

 only with age but with weight. 



Who can forget jolly old Roffey, that Surrey trump, or 

 Stephen Goodall, in Oxfordshire, men who were loads for 

 dray horses ; or, in point of years, old Ben Jennings, in 

 Dorsetshire, with his silvery locks ; or Will Neverd, Mr. 

 Warde's old Huntsman, who took a fresh place at seventy; 

 or old Tom Rose, the late Duke of Grafton's Huntsman, who 

 hunted the hounds till near eighty ; or Wmter, with Mr. 

 Lambton ; or Dick Forster, Mr. Villebois's old Huntsman, 



