466 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



kind master, Lord Spencer, whose almost brotherly kind- 

 ness was happiness to him in his dying hour. 



Twenty-one years huntsman to the Pytchley, hardly a 

 year's indifferent sport, and not one enemy in all that 

 record ! If ever a man could fold his hands upon his 

 deathbed thanking God he died in peace with all, it was 

 Will Goodall. And thus at last he passed quietly away, 

 just a year after his once bright and brilliant contemporary, 

 Frank Beers, and only a few weeks after another famous 

 and honoured professional, John Jones of Cheshire. 



The gift of sympathy and kind-heartedness was the 

 key to Will Goodall's wide popularity among men, as it 

 was in a great measure to his success with hounds. The 

 latter loved him, in kennel and out. He never deceived 

 them, he never called upon them unnecessarily, and never 

 went without them. On the contrary, like his father, he 

 would rather fetch when he wanted them. And he hated 

 to disappoint them. Many a time, when at the end of a 

 long day he was forced to have them stopped in the failing 

 light, have we seen him jump from his saddle to pet and 

 caress them — as it were, to beg their pardon for the 

 necessity. And often and often on his way home, while, 

 ill-advisedly some of us thought, he declined " bite or sup " 

 for himself, would he beg a loaf or two of bread, that his 

 darlings might each have a crumb. 



Apart from this finer -feeling of natural kindliness, Will 

 owed much of his success to his quickness, and to the fact 

 that he never made a move without a distinct, well- 

 calculated object ; even more to his self-possession, a 

 talent engrained by constant effort upon a disposition 

 naturally excitable ; and more than all, possibly, to the 

 electric faculty which belongs to such men as are born to 

 shine above their fellows. He loved his art with his whole 

 soul. He was no great theorist ; but he brought long 

 and thoughtful practice carefully to bear upon the instinct 

 within him. 



His career began by the Honourable George Fitz- 

 william setting him to ride second horse to George Carter, 

 after which he became third whipper-in to the Pytchley. 

 Thence he shortly went on to the Burton, of which 



