^Nimrod ' 



Mytton sort of * Sport/ but some one much more genuine, 

 who rode fifty four-mile heats in less than ten hours, and 

 hunted his own hounds in the Quorn country six times a 

 week, sometimes having two packs out in the day. Does 

 the fact of being a light-weight add to the popularity of 

 a sportsman ? We certainly enjoy to-day the privilege of 

 living in the same age as an illustrious example of a light- 

 weight sportsman who is the most popular man in the 

 British Empire. Anyhow, Osbaldeston was almost the only 

 one of * Nimrod's ' heroes whom the author did not try to 

 patronise in writing about him. Mr. Corbet was another. 

 These two enjoy the distinction of receiving from * Nimrod ' 

 nothing but unqualified admiration. They represent two 

 opposite types in the gallery of our ancestors. Mr. Corbet, 

 tall, distinguished, courteous, an aristocrat and a Fox- 

 hunter to his finger-tips, was a Hound man who sate on 

 his horse like a gentleman but never jumped a fence. Mr. 

 Osbaldeston, small of stature, excitable, ready of tongue, 

 was a horseman rather than a Hound man, and never stopped 

 to open a gate. Each had a famous Foxhound ; Mr. 

 Corbet's Trojan, and Mr. Osbaldeston's Furrier. But it 

 should not be forgotten that Trojan, by Lord Spencer's 

 Trueboy, was bred by his master, while Furrier, though 

 technically Mr. Osbaldeston's Furrier, came in a draft from 

 Belvoir, being by their Saladin. Furrier was a short, 

 jumped-up kind of dog who did not meet you very cleverly 

 on the flags. It was said that his being crooked was due 

 to his not having been allowed his liberty when he was at 



121 



