356 SPORTING STORIES 



Charlie Lamb, half-brother to Lord Eglinton, too, was 

 another of the right sort, who could hold his own with the 

 best on the race-course or with hounds. But Charlie had, 

 what Lord Eglinton lacked, a dry humour, of which this 

 anecdote of his earlier years is a sample : — 



" Why don't you send Charlie to sea ? " an old friend and 

 a right honourable old maid one day said to the Countess, 

 his mother. "It is very bad for a young man to be idling 

 away his time at home." 



After a short pause, Charlie, who was present, furnished 

 the answer himself. 



"Do you not think," said he, "a stomach-pump would 

 answer as well ? " 



But let me turn to England and her fox-hunters. The 

 name of John Warde is, of course, familiar as a household 

 word to everyone who takes the slightest interest in hunting- 

 lore, for was he not one of the greatest among the " fathers 

 of fox-hunting " ? 



There are some stories of John Warde which will, I dare 

 say, be new to many of my readers. Richard Tattersall, 

 the then head of the famous house, always gave a " Derby 

 Dinner," to which some of the most distinguished men of 

 the day were invited. John Warde never missed this 

 function — indeed, the festive occasion would have been 

 nothing without him to represent fox-hunting. The pipe 

 of port which the host and his brother Edmund laid down 

 annually had to pay a heavy tax, for each man had to 

 drink "John Warde and the Noble Science" in a silver 

 fox's-head which held nearly a pint and admitted of no 

 heel-taps. None stood the ordeal better than "glorious 

 John" himself; he would rise from the table steady as a 

 rock, and before he left always made a point of going up 

 to the drawing-room in the small hours to bid Mrs 

 Tattersall good-bye, for that good lady never went to bed 

 till she had seen her husband precede her. 



His mother lived to a great age, and became very deaf, 

 but she had her page-boy in every Sunday to say his 

 Collect and Catechism, and although she could not hear a 

 word he said, yet from the earnest expression of his face 

 and his never hesitating she took it for granted that he 



