THE SQUIRE OF ASWARBY 



your tongue and let hounds kill him.' He had for second 

 horseman a quaint character in Tom Chambers, a man 

 with dried-up skin, looking like leather, and immobile 

 countenance, whom Will used jocosely to designate as the 

 Egyptian mummy. Tom had very slender legs, oi. the same 

 thickness from knee to ankle and guiltless of calves. On 

 one occasion when hounds were breaking up their fox,/];om 

 had dismounted and was holding both horses whilst Goodall 

 performed the obsequies. During the struggle, hounds ran 

 against Tom, nearly knocking him off his pins, on which a 

 bystander exclaimed, * Take care, Tom, or they'll be tasting 

 your calves,' upon which Tom quietly muttered, 'Humph, 

 they'll have a job to find 'em, I think.' Goodall had the 

 saving gift of a sense of humour, and was full of keen ob- 

 servation of the incidents and characters of the hunting field. 

 There was in his day a fashion of having the throat latch of 

 the bridle very loose. On one occasion a well-known Mel- 

 tonian, who had come to take down the numbers of the 

 Belvoir men in their own country, rode up with his throat 

 bridle as loose as fashion prescribed. Hounds started in due 

 course to run from Colman Hill, so did the visitor. Very 

 early in the run one of the big fences caused his horse to 

 peck, and the rider flew over his head holding on to the 

 bridle in accordance with Assheton Smith's precept. But 

 when he gained his feet, though he held the reins, his horse 

 was galloping off homeward, whither the disappointed, sports- 

 man had to follow on foot." 



The same writer tells of a man who created some amuse- 

 ment by appearing in boots and breeches mounted on a 

 donkey. However, this sportsman had the best of the joke, 

 for to every one's surprise when hounds began to run there 

 were rider and Neddy cantering gaily in their wake, and not 

 only that, but feeling their way through the fences so cleverly 

 that many of the laughers were pounded. 



Another of Mr. Finder's good stories is that of the fox 

 which attended the meet, and which that gentleman must be 

 allowed to tell in his own words : — 



" Again surprise was manifested one day when hounds met 



209 P 



