FAMOUS MASTERS 73 



guineas, Mr. Harvey Combe purchasing them for the 

 Old Berkeley country. 



As a horseman, the Squire was facile princeps. In 

 appearance he had little of what is usually understood 

 by the term "sporting." He was rather below the 

 middle size, with a large and muscular frame, legs 

 somewhat disproportioned to the body, appearing, 

 when on horseback, to belong rather to the animal 

 than to the man, so firm and steady was his seat. His 

 weight was eleven stone. His qualities as a huntsman 

 have given rise to much difference of opinion, though 

 there can be no doubt about his assiduity and zeal, 

 two qualities which go far towards counterbalancing 

 minor shortcomings. It has been said that he wanted 

 a little more command of temper, and that when he 

 lost his temper he lost his fox. Certainly it could not 

 be asserted of him, as was asserted of Sir Edward 

 Littleton's huntsman, that he was never heard either 

 to laugh or to swear. Dick Christian had far from a 

 high opinion of him as a huntsman, for he wrote : 

 " He was the oddest man you ever saw at a covert- 

 side. He would talk for an hour ; then he would half 

 draw and talk again, and often blow his horn when 

 there was no manner of occasion, but he was always 

 so chaffy." Another authority says : " His one fatal 

 mistake was not keeping his huntsman, Tom Sebright, 

 whose assistance he often needed in the field after he 

 had gone to Earl Fitzwilliam. When the Squire was 

 hors de combat, after the accident already referred to, 

 Sebright, with Dick Burton to whip-in to him, hunted 

 the country with satisfaction to everybody." But the 



