THE OLD HUNTSMAN AND THE YOUNG MASTER 



nephew of my much respected friend, Count Veltheim, whose 

 writings on breeding horses were so much prized by the 

 readers of the Old Sporting Magazine in the days of that 

 periodical's prosperity. Having had a taste of the count 

 over the mahogany, I can confirm the character given me by 

 a countryman of his own, namely, that he is a ' jolly good 

 fellow,' which, indeed, his looks very plainly show. This is, 

 I understand, the second year of the presence of these noble- 

 men in Leicestershire, and two of the three are very good 

 Englishmen." ^ 



Then he passes to discourse of two ladies who were out, 

 and his method of doing so is clearly early Victorian. 



" There were, likewise, two conspicuous characters this day 

 in the field, appertaining to the softer sex, namely. Miss 

 Manners of Goadby Hall and Miss Charlesworth. Of the 

 latter I saw nothing in the burst, as she did not go my line ; 

 but I heard an anecdote of her that should not go unre- 

 corded, as it shows she ' comes of a good sort,' as Dick 

 Christian says of a horse, and that she herself is not likely 

 to introduce a bad cross. Getting a very bad fall sometime 

 back, and being rather seriously damaged, she was strongly 

 advised to return home. ' Oh, no,' she replied, * I must not 

 do that ; papa would be very angry if I came home before 

 the run was over.' " ^ 



On the whole the sport of these early years of Lord 

 Forester's mastership was good, though perchance Goosey 

 was not quite so keen or so close to his hounds as he had 

 been when younger. Yet, although he may not have been 

 so quick in the field, he never ceased to be the best of 

 kennel huntsmen. William Goodall spoke in after years of 

 having been careful to keep up the quality of the hounds, 

 and a close examination of the sport recorded during the 

 latter years of Goosey's time as huntsman shows us that 

 they must have been a stout pack. Take, for example, a 

 run in 1832, from Goadby right into the Cottesmore country. 

 Finding in Goadby Gorse, and leaving Melton Spinney on 

 the right, hounds ran almost straight for Stapleford. No 

 ^ Sporting Review^ vol. xi., p. 186. ^ Ibid.^ vol. ii., p. 188. 

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