THO>L\S ^^'ESTLAKE 101 



merits or the sport of the day over a bottle of 



sherry. 



" And here and there upon the ground 

 Whimpers a happy dreaming hound : 

 The pioneers of many a run 

 Thus honoured when the chase is done."^ 



His companion on these evenings was often Mr. 

 George Hext,. then a young man U\'ing at his father's 

 ^'icarage hard by, whose taste in sport and sherrj' has 

 matured with the lapse of years. One may be 

 pardoned for wondering whether he is the " Mr. 

 George " of one of the many amusing stories related 

 by the Rev. W. H. Thornton in his delightfully 

 \^Titten Reminiscences. - 



In another passage, Mr. Thornton says of West- 

 lake : 



" He was rather deaf, and would often make me 

 listen for him, but his keenness of sight was wonderful. 

 I have seen him ball a fox on a dry and dusty turn- 

 pike road as he went down it at a canter. The feat 

 seems an impossible one, but I saw liim perform it 

 near to Goodstone Gate, on the road which leads to 

 Halsanger. He coidd see at a distance of fifty paces 

 where a single hound had passed through a covert. 

 ' Look at the leaves, sir, look at the leaves ; where 

 are your e^'es ? Now, you listen for me. Can you 

 hear 'em ? ' " 



Mr. Westlake had some good horses, the best known 

 to fame being Sprig o' Shillelagh, a black blood horse 

 '^'ith a white face, which had been steeplechased in 

 the days of Barumite and Allow Me. Nothing could 

 touch Sprig on the moor. Charlie and Tommy, the 

 latter bought from ^Ir. Soper of Bishopsteignton, 



^ Dartmoor Days. 



* Retninigcencea of an Old West-Country Clergyman, p. 347. 



