HER majesty's STAG -HOUNDS. 277 



in the long and tiring days he had to undergo he found he 

 could take a little more liberty with his horse's mouth than in 

 stronger bits; in fact, that he did from weakness — one who 

 stood over six feet, and weighed only nine stone, could not 

 have been very strong — what many heavy men do, ride on 

 their horse's mouth at times, to ease themselves. "With his 

 fine seat and hands this did not matter, and whether it was 

 over the Berkshire ploughs, the deep Harrow grass, or the Yale 

 of Aylesbury doubles, he could not only hold his own, but 

 often beat the field. A more perfect model of a horseman has 

 never been seen, and not a little did he add to the picture of 

 the royal procession on an Ascot Cup day — an exhibition in 

 which he took great delight. He cared little to talk of either 

 riding or horses, looking, as many of our best sportsmen have 

 done, on one and the other as the means to an end — that end 

 was to see his hounds work. Of course he had some very first- 

 rate ones, and perhaps the best was Hermit, who had a savage 

 disposition, and a pair of very queer-looking fore-legs. I be- 

 lieve he was by a thoroughbred horse called Grey-Skim out of a 

 white mare that had been ridden by a trumpeter in the Life 

 Guards. Davis was often painted on him, and he makes a most 

 imposing central figure in Sir Francis Grant's Ascot Heath pic- 

 ture. It is said he was coarse and rawboned as a colt, when he 

 might have been purchased for eighteen guineas — perhaps on 

 account of his savage temper — but he became very handsome 

 afterwards, and " Nimrod," in reviewing the picture alluded to 

 above, calls him a "picturesque horse." 



Another on which he is painted is the Traverser, who at 

 one time was a good fair horse on the flat, but he came at a 

 later date. During one of his Hampshire excursions he bought 

 a bay mare called Cowslip, and was so pleased with her that 

 he sent her portrait to her late owner, painted by his brother, 

 with a view of Windsor Castle in the distance. The Miller's 

 white fore-foot was preserved amongst his curiosities, and Eurus 

 was an especial favourite. He said he had been equally well 



