110 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



minutes. Mr. Smith had some first-class men as whips in 

 Leicestershire — Dick Burton, of whom Lord Henry Bentinck 

 said that he was the best hand at breaking a pack of hounds for 

 hares, and teaching them to draw, that he ever saw — Jack 

 Shirley, Tom Wingfield, and Tom Day, who died last year. 



Mr. Osbaldeston, commonly called " The Squire," succeeded 

 him in 1816, and was an equally noted character as his pre- 

 decessor, a very fine horseman, cricketer, and shot, though, I 

 venture to think, not better than Mr. Smith in either sport, 

 though more given to notoriety and public display of his powers. 

 Where he excelled was as a hound breeder, a science in which, 

 I suppose, he has not had many superiors ; it was a great feat 

 taking out a whole pack by Furrier. As a huntsman I should say 

 he was not equal to many that could be named, and there was a 

 saying at one time that if he would breed the hounds and let 

 Tom Sebright hunt them, the thing would have been perfect. 

 Jack Stevens, who lived with him, was a first-rate man also, and 

 Nimrod paid him the greatest compliment he ever paid any one, 

 when, after describing the celebrated ideal run in the " Quarterly 

 Eeview," in which every one was supposed to have come pretty 

 well to the end of their second horses, he says he had ridden 

 one horse throiujhout, and so well had he handled him that he 

 could have gone two miles further, had it been required. The 

 Squire had some rare horses under him — Ashton, who was quite 

 a race horse in appearance, and on him Jack Stevens stopped 

 the hounds with an afternoon fox, when every one else was 

 beaten on their second horses. He was sold, after being some 

 years in the Squire's stable, to Lord Plymouth for 500 guineas. 

 Then there was dasher, celebrated for his matches with Clinker, 

 and others that were very hard to beat. Such was Osbal- 

 deston's love of the chase that he would hunt six days a week, 

 and even then have out two packs of a day in the spring. As 

 a huntsman he must certainly rank much lower than Mr. Smith, 

 as was conclusively proved by their efforts in Hants, where both 

 of these rivals went— Mr. Smith to theTedworth county, with a 



