120 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



and afterwards at his own expense until lie resigned it. It was 

 during the first ten years that he had the most brilliant sport, 

 and good runs were continually taking place from the Wragby 

 woodlands. During the latter part of his time foxes were not 

 so well preserved. 



JSTo man ever mounted his men better than Lord Henry 

 Bentinck, and, in buying hunters, price never stopped him. He 

 would have given 1500 gs. for the Colonel, twice winner of the' 

 Liverpool, for his own riding, when he came to the hammer at 

 Tattersall's, and was bought to go to Prussia, at which I am not 

 surprised, as one who knew the horse well told me that, not- 

 withstanding his having been trained and being entire, he was 

 quite an old man's horse with hounds, quiet enough to potter 

 about wath harriers, and would let other horses pass him on the 

 gallop, with the rein on his neck, and take no notice. I have 

 heard that for a horse called Shropshire he paid 600, and agreed 

 to allow the former owner 100 a year as long as the horse 

 carried him. The following anecdote of his horse-buying ex- 

 perience is told in his memoir in "Bailey's Magazine," February, 

 1871 : — " Upon one occasion he went into the country to see a 

 stud of hunters that was for sale. To one of the horses he took 

 rather a fancy, and the proprietor volunteered the information 

 that the horse was in the stud-book, being got by Z, dam by 

 X, grand-dam by Q, great-grand-dam by 0, and so on through 

 the whole pedigree. 'How old is heV asked his lordship. 

 ' Rising seven,' was the reply. ' Z was my property, and he 

 died twelve years ago,' rejoined his lordship, as he turned upon 

 his heel and left the stable." He excelled as a horseman him- 

 self, and, no matter what the mouth or temper of any horse he 

 was on, they almost all went nicely and quietly in his hands. 

 When master of the Burton, he had over a hundred horses in 

 his stable, and afterwards generally kept the number up to fifty, 

 of which, perhaps, he would ride some four or five himself, and 

 he was most liberal in mounting his friends. Although such a 

 fine horseman, he never became a Meltonian, but stuck to 



