i82 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



of the country and the run of his foxes, was well 

 mounted and not afraid to gallop, so that he generally 

 saw at least the finish of a great run. Probably 

 Serjeant Goulburn summed up the generally received 

 view of his riding in the Epwell Hunt poem : 



" How he lived to the end of this terrible day 

 The Muse neither wishes nor ought she to say, 

 That he saw it, is clear, what more could old Meynell ? 

 And witnessed th' effects of his care in the kennel." 



At all events Mr. Corbet enjoyed himself, for his 

 enthusiasm was unbounded and his keenness only 

 lost its edge when ill-health forbade him to hunt. 



But if Mr. Corbet was not fond of fences, his hunts- 

 man, the famous Will Barrow, was not to be stopped 

 by anything. Like the whipper-in of the legend, it 

 was all the same to him when he charged a fence 

 " whether there was a ditch or a coal-pit on the other 

 side." He rode so well that he was able to give his 

 hounds immediate assistance, and, as he was at all 

 times regardless of fences, his casts were quick and 

 decisive. He was rather a morose, sour-tempered 

 man, and in manner and language the reverse of his 

 master. It is said that when a hard-riding stranger, 

 who had, as Will thought, been riding too near his 

 hounds, rolled over and over in a tremendous fall, 

 " There, thank God," said Barrow, " we have done 

 with you." Two fields later the stranger reappeared. 

 " The devil's in the fellow surely," remarked Will in 

 despair. 



The long, prosperous and popular reign of Mr. 

 Corbet ceased in 1812, and Lord Middleton succeeded 

 him. He was far from popular, at all events with the 

 writers of the day. We need not dwell on the changes 

 that followed, save to note that when Lord Middleton 



