THE HOUSE OF MANNERS AND THE CHASE 



all seasons. In the upper part of the room were two small 

 tables and a desk. On the one side of the desk was a church 

 Bible, and on the other a book of martyrs ; upon the table 

 were hawkshoods, belts, etc., two or three old green hats, 

 with their crowns thrust in, so as to hold ten or a dozen eggs, 

 which were of a pheasant kind of poultry ; these he took 

 much care of, and fed himself Tables, boxes, dice, cards 

 were not wanting ; in the holes of the desk was a store of 

 old-used tobacco-pipes. 



"On one side of this end of the room was the door of a 

 closet, wherein stood the strong beer and the wine, and which 

 never came thence but in single glasses, that being the rule of 

 the house exactly observed ; for he never exceeded in drink- 

 ing, nor ever permitted it. 



" On the other side was the door into an old chapel, not 

 used for devotion. The pulpit, as the safest place, never 

 wanted a cold chine of beef, venison pasty, gammon of bacon, 

 or a great apple pie, with a thick crust, extremely baked. 

 His table cost him not much, though it was always well sup- 

 plied. His sport furnished all but beef and mutton, except 

 Fridays, when he had the best oi salt, as well as other y?^/z, he 

 could get, and this was the day on which his neighbours of 

 the first quality visited him. 



" He never wanted a London pudding, and always sung it 



in with ' my pert eyes therein a ' He drank a glass or 



two at meals, very often syrup of gilliflowers in his sack, and 

 always a tun glass stood by him, holding a pint of small beer, 

 which he often stirred with rosemary. He was affable, but 

 soon angry. . . . He lived to be an hundred, never lost 

 his eyesight, but always wrote and read without spectacles, 

 and got on horseback without help. Until past fourscore 

 years old, he rode up to the death of a stag as well as any 

 man. A portrait of this gentleman is now at Winbourn St. 

 Giles, Dorsetshire, the seat of the Earl of Shaftesbury." 



At a later date, old Mr. Forester of Willey, uncle of the 

 first Lord Forester whose name occurs so often in connection 

 with the Belvoir Hunt, may perhaps be taken as a type of 

 the country sporting squire of the day. 



9 



