124 SPORTING REMINISCENCES [1825 to 



appellation of an old master of fox-hounds, 

 having been now twenty-three years in the 

 service. His debut is said to be this : When 

 he resided at Preston Candover, in the house 

 lately occupied by Mr. Willan,* he was master 

 of a pack of harriers ; and having found a fox 

 with them in a country not hunted by fox- 

 hounds, he had a capital run, and killed him. 

 In commemoration of this, he has an excellent 

 picture (by Marshall) in his dining-room, in 

 which he is represented in the act of dis- 

 mounting his horse, for the purpose of cutting 

 off the brush. This is supposed to have spoiled 

 him for cutting off the scut ; and aspiring to 

 higher honours, he succeeded Mr. Paulett in 

 the management of the Hampshire hounds. 

 These he continued to keep, with the sub- 

 scription, for a period of three years, when, in 

 a manner which entitles him to the character 

 I have given of him, he purchased the pack 

 from the club, and has ever since hunted the 

 country without a hound being fed, or even 

 an earth being stopped, but at his expense. 



" It may not be too much to assert that 

 nothing in the shape of a country club can be 



* In 1835 Mr. Willan drove the Age between London and Brighton, 

 until Sir Vincent Cotton bought it of him. He afterwards drove the 

 Magnet on the same road, and frequently went up and down in one 

 day, 104 miles. 



