The Sport of Our (^Ancestors 



mercifully, and generally soon lost their first fox for them. As 

 soon, however, as Tom's company had left him, or he had left them, 

 by slipping down-wind with a few farmers and a field he could 

 control, no hounds would sooner settle to their scent, or make more 

 of it. If the scent would let them, none could twist him up sooner. 

 Tom had one failing (and who has not ?), which was, that he was 

 too strongly prejudiced in favour of his own sort, and thereby lost 

 the advantage which is derived from judiciously crossing, and which 

 has so mainly contributed to the improvement of hounds in the 

 present day. He had generally many lame hounds, which arose, 

 not from any fault of his, but from the dampness of the kennel, in 

 which there arose upright springs ; which (whatever may be the 

 case now) were not cured in his time. Though not an elegant, 

 he was a capital horseman, and no one got better to his hounds. 

 He did not like either a difficult or a raw horse, and he was not what 

 is called a bruising rider ; but he well knew the pace his horse 

 was going, and always kept something in him. He did not like 

 cramming him at large fences ; but, like his inimitable pupil, 

 Charles King, would always let any aspiring rider break the 

 binders for him, and would rather get his horse's hind-legs into 

 the middle of a fence and make him creep through it, than 

 let him jump. 



* He had a sharp eye for a gap, or the weakest place in a fence, 

 and could bore a hole through a black, dark double hedge better 

 than most men. In the latter part of his life, he had a propensity 

 highly disagreeable to a horseman's eye : he used to poke his horse 

 on the head till he frightened him out of his senses, held him too 

 hard, and frequently made him jump short, either before or behind. 

 The consequence was, he often spoilt his beauty in a scramble, 

 or lay on his back, as the penalty of his cowardice. However, he 

 got well to his hounds without upsetting his horse ; and when he 

 was with them he knew well when to stir them, and when to let 

 them alone. 



' Some five-and-thirty years ago no pack was better appointed. 

 The horses came chiefly from the racing stud, and all the men were 



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