NORTHERN COUNTRIES 119 



the courage remains that was wont to take him over the 

 Sket^ngton Lordship in battle with such men as the old 

 Earl of Wilton, with Sir Frederic Johnstone, Captain 

 Coventry, Captain Carnegie, Mr. Powell, and others of the 

 days when Melton and Harboro' rode in hottest rivalry 

 week by week, he is not only the last of these upon the 

 scene of action, but was born long before any but the 

 first-named — besides having been " knocked out of time " 

 more often than all of them put together ! It was, I may 

 mention, as far back as " Running Rein's year " that Mr. 

 Tailby with two horses — one his own, the other Mr. 

 Cradock's — rode from Cambridge to the Derby and back, 

 in twenty-two hours. 



There are, of course, other districts in which good fox- 

 hunting is to be had besides those which the Immortal 

 One used to term the " cut-'em-down countries." But, 

 apart from home-considerations and home-occupations, 

 it is not every one who cares to migrate after middle age. 

 Else might one venture to hint that, though to " follow on 

 with the ruck " in the Shires would be b,ut poor pastime 

 for one who for so many years has been daily prominent 

 in the van, yet in some other counties, notably on those 

 beautiful grass uplands of the North that I have been en- 

 deavouring to describe, it is quite possible to witness all 

 the sport from a good position without risk of such crush- 

 ing falls as niHst be the occasional portion of any man who 

 regularly rides up to hounds in the Midlands. Very very 

 few men exhibit the recuperative power that has been a 

 characteristic of Mr. Tailby. S//7//<?zt;^;' have retained year 

 after year, with fall after fail, such indomitable and ad- 

 mirable courage. In my hunting reminiscences, already a 

 chapter of fair length, I can point to no more honourable 

 example. The fox-hunting of the future will produce few, 

 if any, like him.^ 



' It is gratifying to note that during the season 1902-3, immediately pre- 

 ceding publication of this volume, Mr. Tailby was still riding to hounds, almost 

 with his accustomed fire. 



