THE GOLDEN AGE 



they will now make their way back to the train. Unfor- 

 tunately they have not yet learned that the railroad, though 

 the most direct, is not the safest way to reach the station, 

 and some valuable hounds have been run over and killed in 

 consequence. But in Lord Forester's day all this was un- 

 thought of, and second horses were by no means so universal 

 as now, though they are no doubt an economy rather than 

 otherwise. 



It says something for Lord Forester's powers of endurance 

 that in his undergraduate days he has, after hunting all day 

 with the Bicester and dining at Swift's house with Sir 

 Thomas Mostyn, been known to ride back to Christ Church 

 ere Tom had struck loi, in time to save his gates. 



Having taken his degree with the Bicester and at Christ 

 Church, which were equally necessary to the " Tufts " of the 

 period, it was natural Lord Forester should go to Melton. 

 He thus finished his riding education in a hard school, for 

 Maher, Moore, Maxse and Musgrave were riding against 

 each other, and the world-renowned Assheton Smith was 

 then at his best, and the young sportsman must often have 

 met the latter at Belvoir, for Smith was a constant visitor at 

 the Castle. Lord Plymouth, too, was then buying expensive 

 horses he could not ride, and Dick Christian was going over 

 the " stitchers " with Captain White, and Sir John Musgrave 

 shouting behind him to "hearten him on." I think the 

 reader of old hunting lore cannot fail to have noted how 

 often " George Forester," and his father before him, were 

 with hounds at the end of a long run. " Mr. Cecil Forester 

 stopped the hounds," " Lord Forester was alone with them, 

 and stopped them," are phrases which occur frequently ; and 

 which indicate not only that the two riders were well mounted, 

 but that they must have had fine gifts of patience, horse- 

 manship and judgment. For though it is possible to go for 

 twenty minutes or so brilliantly on a good horse, if you will 

 only sit still and leave matters to your partner in the chase, 

 yet to reach the end of a long hunt without overtasking your 

 horse, and to see what hounds are doing, means a very high 

 level of horsemanship indeed. 



185 



