CHAPTER IX 



THOMAS WESTLAKE: 1865-75 



" Old Westlake's time " : a standard of merit — Unanimous praise — 

 Anstruther Thomson — Recollections of living persons : Mr. Albert Gould ; 

 Mr. Geo. Hext ; Mr. W. C. Clack ; Mr. J. C. Clack ; Mr. R. Vicary ; Mr. 

 H. S. Wright — Endurance and horsemanship — " A little bit in the 

 riding " — Rest after toil — Rev. W. H. Thornton quoted — Favourite 

 horses — Knowledge of run of foxes — A disconcerting answer — A native of 

 North Devon — Rev. W. C. Clack and the ruling passion — ISIr. Walker 

 King — Kennels at Kingsteignton — A presentation — Early difficulties — 

 Criticized by The Devonian of 1828 — Major R. C. Tucker's explanation — 

 The critic satisfied — Hounds — Hunt servants — W. Sara ; W. Derges — 

 Rmis — Mr. Cole's Harriers — Red deer in Buckland Woods — Keepers' 

 dinner — A complimentary dinner — More runs — A change of secretary — 

 An historic run : opinion of Charles Trelawny ; account in Baily — Resigna- 

 tion — Presented with silver cup — A lost horn. 



" Full well the wily fox he knows. 

 His habits and the point he goes ; 

 Nor is there on the Western ground 

 A better judge of horse and hound." 



[Dartmoor Days.) 



THOUGH forty years have passed since Mr. 

 Westlake's mastership ended, it is not rare 

 even to-day to hear his sayings and doings invoked 

 as an authority on hunting matters. Not so many 

 years ago, " Old Westlake's time " was the accepted 

 standard by which everything connected with the 

 hunt was judged. One used to wonder whether it 

 was merely a case of laudator temporis acti ; whether 

 the sport he shewed was really so good as we were 

 told it was, and whether he w^as indeed the great 

 huntsman he was reputed to be. Although first- 

 hand information at this distance of time is some- 

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