108 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



and in those days of comparatively small fields, perhaps he 

 could not foresee the mischief he was doing to sport by the 

 example he thus set. 



In 1800 Mr. Meynell sold his hounds to Lord Sefton, and 

 soon afterwards occurred the celebrated Billesdon Coplow run, 

 celebrated in song both by the Eev. R, Louth and INIr. Bethel 

 Cox — Mr. Louth's, however, is the copy now extant, so we may 

 conclude, as it has survived, it is the better one, and it is said to 

 have been composed in a night, some friends having asked 

 Mr. Louth, at dinner, to write an account of the run. To their 

 astonishment, the next morning at breakfast, he produced this 

 poem. Several parts were, however, expunged before it was 

 jjublished, and this has since appeared in " Eaily's Magazine," 

 with notes on the whole. 



Lord Sefton was a very heavy man, and first introduced 

 second horses in the field, having his ridden behind him by a 

 light lad, the son of Jack Eaven the huntsman, instead of being 

 ridden to points as is now the custom. He also had two hunts- 

 men, Jack Eaven and Stephen Goodall, both celebrities, as the 

 latter well deserved to be if he could hunt hounds, for he could 

 not have got into his saddle under twenty stone. He after- 

 wards went to Sir Thomas Mostyn. Lord Foley was the next 

 master, but he only kept them a year, with Joe Harrison as hunts- 

 man ; and then came Mr. Thomas Assheton Smith, the boldest 

 and best man that ever sat in pigskin — a man who had hands 

 and knowledge, as well as nerve, and took horses first over a 

 country that many men would not have dared to mount, though 

 it is true he hunted to ride instead of riding to hunt. At that 

 time he rode low-priced horses, seldom giving over fifty, and 

 then was not to be beaten. Mr. Smith was a thorough sports- 

 man, and, perhaps, with one or two exceptions, as good a gentle- 

 man huntsman as has ever been seen. In Leicestershire his 

 fine and determined horsemanship stood him in good stead, as 

 he never lost his fox because there was a big fence between 

 liirn and the line where he wanted to make his cast. On the 



