THE BURTON. 119 



a particularly fine horseman, and, indeed, it would be very little 

 use for any man to take hounds in the Burton countiy who was 

 not, for it is by no means an easy one to cross. His huntsman 

 was the notorious Jack Shirley, who had been with Mr. Smith, 

 and with him w^ent into Lincolnshire ; but Sir Richard did not 

 ■wait long before he took hold of them himself, and Shirley 

 subsided into kennel huntsman. In 1826 Sir Eichard was laid up 

 with a broken thigh, and Mr. Foljambe, who afterwards became 

 so celebrated as master of the Grove, managed the country for 

 him ; hence there has arisen a notion that he at one time had 

 this country, but it is not so. Lord Henry Bentinck took 

 the country in 1842, and bought some of Lord Ducie's hounds 

 when he gave up the Vale of White Horse. The celebrated Dick 

 Burton w^as with Lord Henry from 1843 to 1849, and he had 

 most of the men of note with hounds under him at one time or 

 the other ; for, patient as he was with hounds, he was very par- 

 ticular, and hard to please with huntsmen and whips, and few 

 stayed with him very long. Lord Henry said Dick Burton was 

 the best hand entering young hounds he ever saw. He had 

 an intense dislike to seeing a whip turn his head if he was 

 watching a ride, and said no man could watch one properly that 

 did so. On one occasion he watched a whip, and said he turned 

 his head seven, times in five minutes. He would by no mean^ 

 have hounds interfered with, and knowing how carefully he had 

 bred them, trusted them, and liked to see them do their own 

 work, instead of being bustled about by a huntsman who, per- 

 chance, knew less of the matter in hand than they did. It was his 

 custom to have his hound lists bound up with blank leaves, and 

 on these he noted the peculiarities, good or bad, of each hound, 

 and referred to them as a guidance in breeding. He cared less 

 for large bone than many masters, but was very particular with 

 regard to work, and to such perfection had he bred them that 

 when he gave up the country, in 1864, they made the large 

 sum of 3500Z. He had hunted the country six days a week with a 

 subscription, until his friend Mr. Chaplin, of Blankney, died^ 



